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In a few hours, millions of Americans will receive an emergency message "Presidential Alert" on their phone – a simulation in case the president needs to reach the entire country in case of national emergency.
At 14:18 ET, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will send a short alert stating: "THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is required. A few minutes later, TVs and radio programs are suspended and a similar message is broadcast.
The trial was originally scheduled for mid-September but was postponed until Wednesday after Hurricane Florence struck the east coast.
This will be the first time the government has conducted a national test of the Wireless Emergency Alert System (WEA), according to a FEMA opinion.
Previously, emergency warnings were limited to television and radio broadcasts, emitting this terrifying and familiar high pitch. But as consumers moved away from televisions and radios to ever-present mobile devices, the government began developing a system to receive emergency alerts.
Since it was designed in 2006 under the Bush administration, the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) has gradually expanded into the United States to form a new, state-of-the-art emergency alert system. Like the existing system, WEA is designed to alert Americans of bad weather and locally missing children directly to your phone.
But now, FEMA wants to test a third alert – the presidential alert – that will send a message to all the phones turned on with cellular service at the same time.
It will not be a text message sent to your phone, experts say. Instead of sending text messages that can flood networks, alerts are sent directly over the cellular network.
Even though today is a test, any future presidential alert may be sent only at the discretion of the president and may be triggered for any reason. And, unlike other alerts, Americans can not choose not to receive a presidential alert.
Some expressed concern that the system might be misused for political reasons. Others fear that the system could be hacked.
Tom Crane, emergency management expert at Everbridge, an essential communications provider, told TechCrunch that the WEA had put in place "additional guarantees" before sending out an alert. An authorized user must enter a complex password consisting of two elements – a private key and a keystore password – that are unique for each alerting authority.
"It is not as easy as" someone leaves his computer unattended and so I will send a wireless emergency alert, "he said.
The emergency alert system is far from perfect. Earlier this year, panic spread to Hawaii after a misguided warning warned residents of an imminent threat of ballistic missiles. , which at that time was regularly testing rockets used for its nuclear missile program.
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