Emergency Presidential Alert Texts Could Be Faked, Researchers Say

Fake presidential alerts could be sent to tens of thousands of phones, according to a report out of the University of Colorado Boulder. From a report: Researchers say they found a backdoor that let them mimic alerts and blast fake messages to people confined to a small area, such as a city block or a sports stadium. The researchers developed software mimicking the presidential alert format and then used commercially available wireless transmitters to send the messages to phones within their radius. The team had a success rate of hitting 90% of all phones in the area it tested.