[inaudible conversations] good morning welcome to the january 2018 of the fcc secretariats is an empty agenda. Good morning chairman. For todays meeting you will hear six items under consideration. First you will receive a preliminary report Public Safety and Security Bureau on its investigation into the false Emergency Alert in hawaii january 13, 2018. Consider a second report order to enhance effectiveness of wireless Emergency Alert including the geographic access. And considering order with the remaining issues raised from the commissions orders to connect america to auction 903 and compete to receive 1. 98 billion for voice and Broadband Service in highcost areas. With the Public Notice to the connect america find. And not commit to offer Voice Services to those fixed locations in those highcost areas. And order to establish economics and analytics notice of proposed rulemaking to eliminate the requirement with those that submit paper copies of contracts and other documents to the sec has specified section 73. 361 of the commissions rules. Consider the enforcement action. Please note item number seven january 23 Sunshine Notice with the amendment approach 74 and 76 to delete rules made obsolete by the digital transition. And delete from todays agenda. With a preliminary report and chief of the bureau. Good morning mr. Chairman and commissioners. Earlier this month on the morning of january 13, people throughout hawaii were alerted on television, radio and Wireless Phone of an imminent Ballistic Missile attack. From the widespread panic and fear issued by the state of hawaii with the Emergency Alert system and wireless Emergency Alert. But it was a false alert compounding this problem it took 30 minutes for the hawaii eas to issue a corrective alert. As chairman pai stated it was unacceptable and immediately directed that Public Safety and Homeland Security. To investigate the incident with the goal of understanding how it happened and how to help prevent such an incident from happening again. Americas Emergency Alert system provides timely information in these systems remain effective. To maintain the publics confidence when Emergency Alert is issued the public heath the call. Today the bureau has a preliminary report today joining me is that deputy chief and an attorney advisor Cybersecurity Division and the deputy chief of the bureau of operation so these talented full salon with her bureau have produced an incredible amount of excellent work on this investigation the wireless Emergency Alert item considered shortly in the recent testimony before the Senate Commerce committee. All within a very, very very short timeframe. To the team as well as others in the bureau, thank you you have my pride and appreciation and i am grateful you are a part of the Public Safety and homeland Security Bureau family. I would also like to recognize our field agent with the Enforcement Bureau who assisted while we were on the ground in hawaii as part of the investigation. James will present the report. Thank you for your kind words. As said on january 13 those that initiated a false Ballistic Missile alert. Wireless Emergency Alert as well as Emergency Alert system delivering alerts through television and radio. The bureau has the representatives of the Emergency Management agency and in honolulu and a demonstration of the software initiates the alerts. In addition of wireless providers Offering Service to hawaii president of hawaii Broadcasters Association and state communications community. And other state and other Emergency ManagementAgency Stakeholders we have been pleased with cooperation we have received from the hawaii Emergency Management agency that individual has refused to speak with us however late last week the hawaii Emergency Management agency provided a statement which help to improve our understanding of the events leading to the false alert. By way of background for what happened on january 13, actively testing the capabilities over the past year the Ballistic Missile defense drill begins with a call from an officer whose really a specific command and ends with the transmission of a test message to fema. Under the established role procedures it should be sent only for a Warning System should never actually be transmitted to consumer phones or television by november 27 they had memorialized a checklist of procedures look at the Ballistic Missile defense drill defined after months of testing and the agency was running the drill that was commencing them for those that initiate the alerts. The final version of the checklist on january 13 was created january 5. I will walk you through a timeline as we understand them. In the Early Morning hours of january 13 the hawaii Emergency Management agency conducted a troll without incident the supervisor of the midnight shift also decided with no notice version of the drill. The midnight shift supervisor specifically decided to drill a shift change to help train the day shift for a scenario at a time when it would be challenging to properly respond. At 8 00 a. M. They conducted the regularly schedule shift change the supervisor of the midnight shift orally communicated that intention of the drill. But there was a miscommunication the incoming day shift supervisor that the midnight shift intended conducted for the midnight officers only not those for the day shift. As a result he was not in the proper location to supervise when the drill was initiated. At 805 the midnight shift supervisor initiated the drill by placing a call pretending to be a command playing a message that the recording began by saying exercise exercise exercise. After that it did not follow the hawaii Emergency Management system Standard Operating Procedures for the drill. Instead it included language scripted for use for an actual live Ballistic Missile alert. And the recording ended by saying exercise exercise exercise three onduty warning officers received the message simulating a call and according to a statement we heard that is not a drill but did not hear exercise exercise exercise. According to the written statement therefore they believe the missile threat was real so the officer responded by transmitting an alert to the state of hawaii. The day shift warning officer use the software specifically selecting the template from a dropdown menu with test alert templates the Origination Software prompted the officer to confirm if they wanted to send the message. Are you sure . The warning officer who heard the recording new that it did not indicate a missile threat. But keep the beginning of an exercise. Specifically to hear the words exercise exercise exercise. However they reported to the hawaii Emergency Management system after the event their belief that this was a real emergency. Because we cannot interview the officer who transmitted the false alert we cannot evaluate the credible alert if there was a missile threat as opposed accidentally sending it out but it is worth noting to be accurately recall the announcement did say this is not a drill. The warning officer that transmitted the alert with the distinct audible tones from the Emergency Alert. At the actual alert was transmitted to the public. Director of the hawaii mom hawaii Emergency Management system notified they had a false alert. The director of hawaii Emergency Management system communicated to Pacific Command no missile launch. Hawaii Emergency Management system also notified the police department. At 8 12 a. M. Hawaii Emergency Management system use the Origination Software to cancel the retransmission of the false alert. That is the instruction to downstream the equipment for a retransmission. A cancellation message does not generate an all clear message or recall those that were transmitted and displayed on television mobile phones. Through 8 26 a. M. Hawaii Emergency Management system conducted outreach to the county agencies and radio and tv stations to inform them the alarm was false. With the incoming calls asking about the nature of the alert. So long some cost and get through they notified the staff so they could help respond to community increase. At 8 20 a. M. Hawaii Emergency Management system posted on facebook and twitter accounts and was no missile threat and it 8 24 a. M. Hawaii governor tweeted the notice there was no missile threat. The governor stated he could not do this earlier because he didnt know the twitter password. At 8 27 a. M. The agency staff had another message the agency determined a correction of the false alert is one of the event codes. At 8 30 a. M. The agency called fema after 45 seconds all on the call agreed it met the criteria of the event code. At 831 the deputy chief of the hawaii Emergency ManagementSystem Communications branch walked into the Origination Software to create a correction message 38 minutes minutes after the false alert Agency Issued a correction. The beer will use a combination of human error and inadequate safeguards contributed to the false alert. With respect to human error due to a miscommunication with the shift supervisor the drill was run without sufficient supervision and other agencies rushed supervision and it would not be tolerated. Further, the midnight shift provides the initiated the drill that deviated from the script from the procedure including the phrase this is not a drill apparently failed to realize this is an exercise even though those understood is in the real emergence. With respect to inadequate safeguards no procedures were in place to prevent a Single Person from mistakingly sending a missile alert to the state of hawaii. While addressing the utmost gravity there was no requirement for an officer to double check with colleagues before sending such alert. Additionally the state of hawaii appears to have been conducting drills which highend the potential for the error to occur. Has revealed so far while they use no noticed rules it is common practice to schedule them in advance or a set date and time. It is also troubling hawaii software did not differentiate between testing and the live environment. The software allows them to send life and test alerts using the same interface and the same login credentials after clicking a button to say are you sure you want to send this alert . In other words the confirmation prompt contains the same language irrespective if it is a test or an actual alert. The confirmation prompt did not offer the officer another opportunity and further hawaii is reliant on those templates making it easier without a sufficient focus on the actual text of the alert message here she was about to send and in contrast to post that environment at another login screen through a separate application. Then to distinguish the test environment. Including use of watermarks. Then the error was worsened by the delay to correct any information. Hawaii Emergency Management system had not anticipated to issue a false alert and as such dash to help ensure another incident like this never happens again. Creating a new policy supervisors must receive advanced notice of all drills to require two credentialed warning officers to sign in and validate and a false alert for the Wireless Services to be more readily prepared to correct a false alert should one never occur again. And with that software to be improved and then issue a final report to safeguard against false alerts to mitigate the harmful effects. Once we had developed these recommended measures with the stakeholder outreach. Among other avenues with the emergency ecosystem and then to develop with fema to educate the stakeholders. And then to have implement actions. Thank you. Now turn the comments from the branch bed. There is a serious issue because it should be a wakeup call for all stakeholders me cannot simply dismiss this to be the inadvertent mistake that only officials and hawaii needs to address this incident is serving as a catalyst to review the emergency every community should be doing more prevents the issuance of a false alert but if it is ever sent again the capability to immediately a correction should be in place and the protocols how to go about that should be clearly defined. Thank you. I have more questions than a statement but it is astounding that nobody was charged this could be a cataclysmic catastrophe of utmost importance to check on the one point that you made you highlighted regarding the governor we hope it would have waited as they came out from commenting that responding today that that article was not completely accurate the reason he did not respond is because he could not find his password . That is how it was reported in the news. Help me out i watched your testimony in the senate it was very helpful of whose responsibilities were whose but fema has responsibility to oversee the preparation of the notification the state and local and other organizations and hours to make sure those notifications is that consistent with your testimony . The fcc is responsible by the Service Providers fema overseas to aggregate the originators. The state and local government decide when to issue the alert and when they would be issued. So that is when our role kicks in . A lot of the steps seem to be femas responsibility. Is that not accurate . Now the stakeholder roundtable was a possibility that his fema has responsibility. Aside from the Communications Perspective it did get out under the companies themselves. It is not our responsibility. With that perspective. That what we have said in the presentation and what i have said in my testimony is that all the stakeholders involved need to do their part to address these types of issues. The sec is simply performing its part so it has in the past and been to those stakeholders for Lessons Learned we have also taken into account the state and local governments and fema in terms of policies that we adopt. There is a Stakeholder Advisory Committee created that fema operates so they have the authority for convening that as they see fit. It is only 18 months old. Thats right they have a committee dealing with their system. One last question. The supervisor of this entire project was at home at the time . You logged into the system to create the false alert and was at home . Is that accurate . Thank you commissioner. Imagine what you would do at this moment on your phone you receive the following message. Ballistic missile threat seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill. Who would be the first person you call . What do you say . What about the intervening 38 minutes between getting that message and another one to say the first was false . Many residents of hawaii lived through that scenario. Many thought was 38 minutes were there last. That panic and fear and heartache we now believe was due to human air but also insufficient preparation and training. Nobody should have to go through a moment like that especially basic competency the people of hawaii are justifiably moving to demand answers and so do we. I committed the chairman for beginning an investigation the Public Safety for all the work put together through preliminary findings and testifying on this issue so quickly that shed light on what has transpired. Will get to the bottom of this incident it is relative to be certain that this does not happen again. Thank you for your diligent work i look forward to continuing to work with you on this matter. Years ago i had the privilege of working for the people of hawaii serving as counsel so i know the residents are grateful and resilient and also aware like all of us, of new vulnerabilities in the pacific. When this incident occurred i reached out to those i worked with in the past to understand what had happened. They had only harrowing tales to tell. Imagine knowing you only had minutes to live before everything you hold dear could be destroyed. What would you do . I sure those people held their children a little closer. I did the same this system failed miserably we need to improve it and get it right. Amen. Lets get to work that starts with a preliminary port that we produced today for the chairman calling for an investigation which was the r