National Test: Oct 4th FEMA to test cell services’ Emergency Alert System

FILE PHOTO: Representatives from FEMA speak with a resident of the Staten Island borough neighborhood of New Dorp Beach about registering with the agency for financial assistance to help recover from the storm surge of Hurricane Sandy in New York, NY, U.S., November 15, 2012. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo

Important Takeaways:

  • Get ready for an alert on your cellphones, televisions and radios on Oct. 4.
  • At 2:20 p.m., the federal government will test its nationwide Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alerts. The purpose is to ensure that the systems continue to be an effective means of warning the public about national emergencies.
  • Cell towers will broadcast the test for approximately 30 minutes. All wireless phones should receive the message only once.
  • People with cell phones will get a message that reads: “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.”
  • Phones with the main menu set to Spanish will display: “ESTA ES UNA PRUEBA del Sistema Nacional de Alerta de Emergencia. No se necesita acción.”
  • FEMA and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are coordinating with Emergency Alert System participants, wireless providers, emergency managers and other stakeholders in preparation for this national test to minimize confusion and to maximize the public safety value of the test.
  • The alert to be sent through radio and television broadcasters, cable systems and satellite radio is scheduled to last about one minute. It will state: “This is a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System, issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, covering the United States from 14:20 to 14:50 hours ET. This is only a test. No action is required by the public.”
  • If the Wednesday, Oct. 4, test is postponed due to widespread severe weather or other significant events, the back-up testing date is Wednesday, Oct. 11.

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U.S. pushes back national wireless alert test to Oct. 3

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a reception for Congressional Medal of Honor recipients in the East Room of the White House in Washington, U.S., September 12, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Trump administration has delayed until next month plans to send a message to all U.S. cellphones testing a previously unused presidential alert system that aims to warn the public about national emergencies, officials said on Monday.

The test message was originally scheduled for 2:18 p.m. EDT (1818 GMT)on Thursday but is being pushed back to the same time on Oct. 3 because of response efforts to Tropical Depression Florence, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said in a statement.

Florence came ashore in North Carolina on Friday as a hurricane and has caused widespread flooding in North and South Carolina.

FEMA, which will send the alert, said last week that the messages would bear the headline “Presidential Alert,” and that phones will make a loud tone and have a special vibration.

The test has been scheduled to ensure that the alert system would work in the event of a national emergency, and U.S. cellphone users will not be able to opt out. The message will read: “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.”

Former President Barack Obama signed a law in 2016 requiring FEMA to create a system allowing the president to send cellphone alerts regarding public safety emergencies.

The country’s wireless emergency alert system was started in 2012 and has issued over 36,000 alerts for situations such as missing children, extreme weather and natural disasters, but never a presidential directive.

Cellphone users can opt out of natural disaster or missing children alerts.

In its statement last week on the test messages, FEMA said the presidential alerts can be used only for national emergencies and the president has sole responsibility for determining when such alerts are used.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Frances Kerry)

FBI chief calls unbreakable encryption ‘urgent public safety issue’

FILE PHOTO: FBI Director Christopher Wray delivers remarks to a graduation ceremony at the FBI Academy on the grounds of Marine Corps Base Quantico in Quantico, Virginia, U.S. December 15, 2017.

By Dustin Volz

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The inability of law enforcement authorities to access data from electronic devices due to powerful encryption is an “urgent public safety issue,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Tuesday as he sought to renew a contentious debate over privacy and security.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation was unable to access data from nearly 7,800 devices in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 with technical tools despite possessing proper legal authority to pry them open, a growing figure that impacts every area of the agency’s work, Wray said during a speech at a cyber security conference in New York.

The FBI has been unable to access data in more than half of the devices that it tried to unlock due to encryption, Wray added.

“This is an urgent public safety issue,” Wray added, while saying that a solution is “not so clear cut.”

Technology companies and many digital security experts have said that the FBI’s attempts to require that devices allow investigators a way to access a criminal suspect’s cellphone would harm internet security and empower malicious hackers. U.S. lawmakers, meanwhile, have expressed little interest in pursuing legislation to require companies to create products whose contents are accessible to authorities who obtain a warrant.

Wray’s comments at the International Conference on Cyber Security were his most extensive yet as FBI director about the so-called Going Dark problem, which his agency and local law enforcement authorities for years have said bedevils countless investigations. Wray took over as FBI chief in August.

The FBI supports strong encryption and information security broadly, Wray said, but described the current status quo as untenable.

“We face an enormous and increasing number of cases that rely heavily, if not exclusively, on electronic evidence,” Wray told an audience of FBI agents, international law enforcement representatives and private sector cyber professionals. A solution requires “significant innovation,” Wray said, “but I just do not buy the claim that it is impossible.”

Wray’s remarks echoed those of his predecessor, James Comey, who before being fired by President Donald Trump in May frequently spoke about the dangers of unbreakable encryption.

Tech companies and many cyber security experts have said that any measure ensuring that law enforcement authorities are able to access data from encrypted products would weaken cyber security for everyone.

U.S. officials have said that default encryption settings on cellphones and other devices hinder their ability to collect evidence needed to pursue criminals.

The matter came to a head in 2016 when the Justice Department tried unsuccessfully to force Apple Inc to break into an iPhone used by a gunman during a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California.

The Trump administration at times has taken a tougher stance on the issue than former President Barack Obama’s administration. U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in October chastised technology companies for building strongly encrypted products, suggesting Silicon Valley is more willing to comply with foreign government demands for data than those made by their home country.

(Reporting by Dustin Volz; Editing by Will Dunham)