TV Station In Montana Gets EAS Hacked With Zombie Attack [VIDEO]

Yeah, this really happened.  An Emergency Alert System (EAS) interrupted a Great Falls, Mont. television station during the 'Steve Wilkos Show' with a message that said "the bodies of the dead are rising from their graves and attacking the living." Meaning? Yes, a zombie attack was underway.

The alert -- which turned out to be a prank -- was quickly pulled off the air and replaced with an apology from the network, KRTV. During the Steve Wilkos Show they had put a teen through a cheater's lie detector test and the show was about to reveal the results when the alert occurred, thanks to the zombie hoax, we will never know what happened.

Following Monday’s breach of the Emergency Alert System, tech manufacturers are scrambling to make sure there are no open security windows in their equipment. Monroe Electronics said its customers should change passwords and step up EAS’ security by putting the system behind a firewall.

The Montana TV station wasn't the only one who received the alert. A station in Salt Lake City, Utah also got the bogus news. Bonneville director of engineering John Dehnel says, "Because of how the fake alert was created, such as using live codes, a duration time, and knowing how to send an audio cut, Dehnel is convinced the hackers know a lot about the inner-workings of EAS. “A normal hacker hitting that thing would not know how to do that,” he says.

The FCC, FBI and several state and local law enforcement agencies are investigating what now appears to have been a widespread hack attack on the Emergency Alert System. Besides violating FCC rules, the hacker could face federal criminal charges.

(thefw.com)