Shortly before midnight Friday night, hackers activated 156 emergency warning sirens across the City of Dallas. The ordeal for Dallas resident lasted more than one and one-half hours.
“We can state at this time that the City’s siren system was hacked Friday night,” Dallas Public Information Office Sana Syed wrote in an official statement obtained by Breitbart Texas. “For security reasons, we cannot discuss the details of how this was done, but we do believe that the hack came from the Dallas area.”
The attack on Dallas residents’ sleep began at 11:42 p.m. Friday night, Syed stated. It continued until 1:17 Saturday morning.
Dallas Emergency Warning Siren Network. (Image: City of Dallas)
“Right now our priority is to work on reactivating our system,” the Dallas spokeswoman wrote. “We won’t know the health of our sirens until we reactivate the system.”
She warned the sirens could sound the alarm again during the reactivation and testing process. Dallas officials requested residents not call 911 or 311 to report the sirens during this period.
“This is yet another serious example of the need for us to upgrade and better safeguard our city’s technology infrastructure,” Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings told reporters at the Dallas Morning News. “It’s a costly proposition, which is why every dollar of taxpayer money must be spent with critical needs such as this in mind. Making the necessary improvements is imperative for the safety of our citizens.”
Twitter users took to the social media airwaves to respond to the hacking event that woke many residents from a sound night’s sleep.
Amy Junod Tweeted:
Tedford tweeted concern about a possible air attack:
And Allison Chvojan took it all all in good stride with a glass of wine:
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.