[IP] FCC acknowledges EAS security holes
Begin forwarded message:
From: Kevin Poulsen <klp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: August 13, 2004 4:28:38 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: FCC acknowledges EAS security holes
http://www.securityfocus.com/news/9324
U.S. tackles Emergency Alert System insecurity
By Kevin Poulsen, SecurityFocus Aug 12 2004 6:17PM
The U.S. Emergency Alert System (EAS) that lets officials instantly
interrupt radio and T.V. broadcasts to provide emergency information in
a
crisis suffers from security holes that leave it vulnerable to denial of
service attacks, and could even permit hackers to issue their own false
regional alerts, federal regulators acknowledged Thursday.
"Security and encryption were not the primary design criteria when EAS
was
developed and initially implemented," the Federal Communications
Commission
(FCC) wrote in a public notice launching a review of the system. "Now,
however, emergency managers are becoming more aware of potential
vulnerabilities within the system. For example, the complete EAS
protocol is
a matter of public record and potentially subject to malicious
activations
or interference."
[...]
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