Hackers Set off Dallas City Sirens

[engine]

Hackers appear to have set of the Dallas city emergency sirens late on Friday, disrupting the city and population, waking many from their slumber.

That must have been concerning to the city residents when it happened, especially not knowing what was going on. Hopefully, they had a better sleep to following nights.

The alarms, which started going off around 11:40 p.m. Friday and lasted until 1:20 a.m. Saturday, created a sense of fear and confusion, jarring residents awake and flooding 911 with thousands of calls, officials said. Hackers Set off Dallas City Sirens [nytimes.com]

[bwnbwn]

Makes you wonder will they soon be hacking the power grid and hold the city or country hostage for payment. There have been movies about this and in many cases the movie becomes a fact.

[engine]

Too much important tech is getting hooked up, and with insufficient security, imho.

[lawman]

I bet there were thousand of dogs howling back.

[Marshall]

Too much important tech is getting hooked up, and with insufficient security, imho.

And probably for no really valid reason. Why does something like warning sirens have to connected?

[keyplyr]

I wish someone would figure out a hack to turn off those honking car alarms that go on all night long (I live in a busy city.)

[tangor]

Why does something like warning sirens have to connected?

Old days:
150 sirens, 150 people with telephones to turn on the sirens.

New days:
One computer, one operator, one telephone to turn on the sirens.

Old days:
150 pensions

New days:
Outsourced IT with no pensions or health plans.

[Marshall]

Old days:
150 sirens, 150 people with telephones to turn on the sirens.

New days:
One computer, one operator, one telephone to turn on the sirens.

Old days:
150 pensions

New days:
Outsourced IT with no pensions or health plans.

Old days - everything hardwired and one person with a big red (on/off) button.

[engine]

Somebody tried to convince me to have a net-connected thermostat the other day. He said I could control the heating from my phone. Needless to say, I stopped him before he wasted any more of our time. It may be fine for some people, but not for me. The IoT seems to be developing into another open system with very little security or regulation, so we're going to see more of these systems being hacked and abused, imho.

Old days - everything hardwired and one person with a big red (on/off) button.

There's something satisfying about a big red button, as opposed to a submit button on a web page.

[bwnbwn]

engine complete homes are being wired all the way down to locks and garage doors. All appliances, lights, heat, air, water everything. Scary thought for me but the new generation is a wired generation. In 50 years well who knows.

[keyplyr]

I've been hooking up Google Home to voice commands for almost everything in my recording studio. The remote app on my phone has 2 stage security: password & fingerprint. I feel it's safe.

[birdbrain]

Hi there keyply,

"The remote app on my phone has 2 stage security: password & fingerprint.
I feel it's safe."

Can you ever be sure of that?

Tilting a smartphone can give away passwords and pins [bbc.co.uk]

birdbrain

[keyplyr]

Yup, absolutely sure.