Dallas City Emergency Siren Scramble Work Of Hackers, The Impossible Attack

It seems hackers are getting into all kinds of trouble lately, with the city of Dallas, Texas being their latest targets. Last Friday night, the emergency sirens of the city blared up all at once, prompting a spread of fear and panic among citizens. The most alarming aspect of this development, however, is that this eventuality was thought to have been impossible.

At around 11:40 PM on Friday, all 156 emergency sirens in Dallas went off, which prompted a widespread confusion for about 40 minutes before it ended at around 1:20 AM, Gizmodo reports. The cause for the unexpected and unsanctioned activation of the sirens appear to be a hack. This was according to the director of the Office of Emergency Management in Dallas, Rocky Vaz.

The office’s spokesperson, Sana Syed also told reporters that they were reasonably sure that this incident was due to outside forces. It also seemed that the hackers were operating in Dallas due to the matter of proximity, which could even indicate that it was a resident of the city who perpetrated the hack.

As expected, the incident made the rounds on social media with numerous users remarking how creepy it was to hear the sirens go off like they did. It seems officials are reluctant to release more details about the breach as well, which they say is a matter of security, The New York Times reports.

On the matter of how serious this development is, it is a little startling for hackers to target something as unassuming and yet as important as emergency sirens. As Venture Beat notes, this should have been impossible for several reasons.

For anyone who has played both Watch Dogs games, this incident might have familiar elements, but this isn’t just some random smartphone that pedestrians use. If connectivity has indeed advanced so far that hackers can remotely access government facilities and systems, it’s no longer all fun and games.