Transcripts For CSPAN2 FCC Open Meeting On Emergency Alert S

The false Emergency Alert that occurred in hawaii on januar january 13, 2018. Second, you will consider a second report in order to excuse me, order on recon to enhance the effectiveness of wireless Emergency Alert including improving the geographic accuracy of these alerts. Third you will consider an order addressing the remaining issues raised by parties for the committees order implementing the connect america phase two auction 903 in which Service Providers receive support for up to 1. 98 billion to offer voice and Broadband Service in unserved high cost areas. Fourth, you consider a Public Notice establishing procedures for the connect America Fund Phase ii option which will award up to 1. 98 billion over ten years to Service Providers that commit to offer voice and Broadband Services to fixed locations in unserved high cost areas. This, you consider in order to establish an office of economic and analytics and six you will consider a notice of proposed rulemaking proposing to eliminate the requirement that broadcast licensees and committees which routinely submit paper copies of contracts and other documents to the fcc as specified in section 3. 361 of the questions. Seven, you will consider an enforcement action. This is your agenda for today. Please note items seven on the agenda as listed in the januar january 203rd 2018 Sunshine Notice entitled amendment of part b7547374 and 76 of the commissions rules to delete pools made obsolete by the Digital Transition was adopted by the commission and deleted from todays agenda. First thing on the agenda is a pulmonary report provided by the Security Bureau and chief of the bureau will give the introduction. Thank you, madam secretary ms. Holt, the floor is yours if you. Good morning mr. Chairman, commissioners. Earlier this month on the morning of january 13 people throughout hawaii were alerted on their Television Radio and wireless phones of an eminent Ballistic Missile attack. The warning unleashed widespread panic and fear. The alert was issued by the state of hawaii to the Emergency Alert system and the wireless Emergency Alert system but the warning was false alert. Compounding this problem it took 38 minutes for the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency to issue a corrective alert. As chairman price stated this false alert was unacceptable and he immediately asked the bureau 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 provided timely and lifesaving information to the public and must ensure that these systems remain effective. This includes maintaining the publics confidence so that when it Emergency Alert is issued the public heeds its call. Today the bureau presents a preliminary report on its investigation. Joining me here today are nikki, deputy for ot for the Public Safety homeland Security Bureau, james wiley, attorney advisor in the bureaus Cyber Security and mitigations Reliability Division and justin kane, deputy chief of the bureaus operation in Emergency Management position. These talented folks along with the rest of the heroes learning team has produced an incredible amount of excellent work on this investigation. Wireless Emergency Alert that will be considered truly and my recent testimony before the Senate Commerce committee. Often a very, very, very short timeframe. To nikki, james and the rest of the alerting team as well as others in the bureau would help on these projects in recent weeks thank you. You have my pride and appreciation and i am grateful that you are a part of the Public Safety. Family. I would also like to recognize client, field agent with the Enforcement Bureau who assisted james and justin when they were on the ground in hawaii as part of this investigation. James will present the report. Thank you. Thank you for your kind words. Good morning kevin by in commissioners. As was said on generate 13 the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency initiated a false Ballistic Missile alert. Using the wireless Emergency Alert system which delivers alert to consumers mobile devices as well as the Emergency Alert system which delivers alert through television and radio. In investigating the false alert the bureau to date has interviewed representatives of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency in person in honolulu and received a demonstration of how its alert Origination Software initiates alert in tests. In addition we have interviewed representatives of wireless providers that offer service to hawaii, the president of the hawaii Broadcaster Association and the hawaii state Emergency Communications committee, alert Origination Software vendors including the vendor that supplies alerting software to the white emergency and other state management and stakeholders. So far we have generally been pleased with the level of cooperation we have received including the leadership of the hawaii Emergency Management corporation. Unfortunately the individual that transmitted the false alert has refused to speak with us. However, late last week the the Emergency Management agency provided us with information from a statement made by this individual shortly after the incident which help to improve our understanding of the events that led to the false alert. By way of background and provide context to what happened on generate 13 why he has been actively testified its alert and warning abilities over the past year. The hawaii Emergency Management Ballistic Missile defense drill aims to simulate filament and begins with a call from a warning officer who simulates a call from the United States Pacific Command and ends with the transmission of a test message to fema. Under the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency established the procedures the text message should be sent to only famous public warning system, gateway. It should never actually be transmitted to consumer phones, radios or television. By november 27 of last year Hawaii Emergency Management Agency had memorialized a checklist of procedures for initiating and conducting proposed Missile Defense drill. It has been refined over months of testing through practice and feedback on Lessons Learned. And the agency was regularly running the sick Missile Defense drill as a no notice drill meaning it was commencing the drills without prior notice to the warning officer that initiated the alerts. In order to better stimulate actual emergency conditions. The final version to the checklist which guided them through the plastic was a director was created on generate. I will now walk you through a timeline of events is really understand them that led to the initiation of the false alert. In the Early Morning hours of january 13 the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency midnight shift conducted a plastic Missile Defense drill without incident and the supervisor of the midnight shift also decided to run eight no notice version of the drill during the transition to the dayshift. The midnight shift supervisor specifically decided to drill a shift change in order to help train the dayshift warning officers for a plastic Missile Defense scenario at a time when it would be challenging to properly respond. At 8 00 a. M. Hawaii standard time Hawaii Emergency Management Agency conducted this regularly scheduled shift change. The supervisor of the dayshift entered the agency the supervisor of the midnight shift communicated the intentions poorly of the drill but there was a miscommunication. The incoming dayshift supervisor thought the midnight shift supervisor intended to conduct the drill for the midnight shift warning officers only and those that were ending their shift not for the dayshift officers those beginning their shift. As a result the dayshift supervisor was not in the proper location to supervise the dayshift warning officers when the plastic Missile Defense drill was initiated. At 8 05 a. M. The midnight shift supervisor initiated the drill by placing a call to the dayshift warning officers pretending to be us Pacific Command. The supervisor played a recorded message over the phone and their cordons began by saying exercise, exercise, exercise. Language that is consistent with the beginning of the script for the drill. After that however the recording did not follow the Hawaii Emergency Management Agencys Standard Operating Procedures for the stroke. Instead the recording included language scripted for use in an Emergency Alert system message for an actual live Ballistic Missile alert. It included the sentence this is not a drill. The recording and if by saying again exercise, exercise, exercise. Three onduty warning officers in the agency wash center pc this message simulate a call from the us Pacific Command on. According to a written statement by the warning officer as related to the bureau the dayshift warning officer heard this is not a drill but did not hear exercise, exercise, exercise. According to the written statement the dayshift warning officer therefore believed that the missile threat was real. At 8 07 a. M. The officer responded by transmitting a live incoming plastic missile alert to the state of hawaii. The dayshift warning officer you suffered to send the alert and specifically they selected the template for a life alert from a dropdown menu containing various live and test alert. The alert Origination Software prompted the warning officer to confirm whether they wanted to send the message to the prompt read are you sure you want to send this alert . Warning officers who heard the recording report that they knew that the erroneous incoming message did not indicate a real missile threat but was supposed to indicate the beginning of an exercise. Specifically they heard the words exercise, exercise, exercise. The dayshift warning officers exceeded the alert reported to the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency after the event their belief that this was a real emergency. They clicked yes to transmit the alert. Because we have not been able to interview the dayshift warning officer who transmitted the false alert youre not in a position to fully evaluate the credibility of their assertion that they believe there was an actual missile threat and intentionally send the life alert as opposed to believing that it was a drill and accidentally sending out the life alert. It is worth noting that the accurately recalled the event that the announcement did say this is not a drill. At 8 08 a. M. The mobile device of the warning officer who transmitted the alert sounded wireless Emergency Alert attention signal. It was distinct audible tones that announced a wireless Emergency Alert. It provided the first indication to those in the watch center that an actual alert had been transmitted to the public. At 8 09 a. M. State Major General joe logan director of the high Emergency Management agency notified Hawaii Governor that the agency had transmitted a false alert. At 8 10 a. M. The director of the white Emergency Management Agency Communicated United States Pacific Command that there was no Missile Launch confirming what Pacific Command already knew. High Emergency Management agency also notified the Honolulu Police department there was no Missile Launch. At 8 12 a. M. The white Emergency Management agency used its alert Origination Software to cancel the false alert. The conflation is in it to downstream Emergency Alert system and wireless permit to retransmission. Notably a cancellation that it does not generate an all clear message and it does not call messages that have already been transmitted and displayed on televisions and mobile phones. From 8 13 a. M. To 8 26 a. M. The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency conducted outreach to the county Emergency Management out reach in radio and tv stations to inform them that the alarm was false. The agencys phone lines also became congested with incoming calls from a public asking about the nature of the alert they just received. Some calls to the agency did not get through. The agency also notified its staff of the false alert so they could help respond to community inquiries. At 8 20 a. M. The hawaii Emergency Management posted on facebook and your account there was no missile threat to white. At 8 24 a. M. Hawaii governor did the agencys notice that there was no missile threat. Governor has stated that he was unable to do this earlier. He did not notice. At 8 27 a. M. The agency staff met to discuss options for sending a corrective second message using the Emergency Alert system and the wireless Emergency Alert system. The agency determined that a correction of this false alert best met the criteria of the Civil Emergency message which is one of the event codes used to initiate alerts over the Emergency Alert system. At 8 30 a. M. The agency called fema and on the second attempt to reach a reached a employee and after a 45 seconds all on the call agreed the correction met the criteria for use of the Civil Emergency message. 8 31 p. M. The deputy chief of the hawaii Emergency Management public Mitigation Branch logged into the agencies alert Origination Software created correction messages for the Emergency Alert and systems. At 8 45 a. M. 38 minutes after the false alert the Agency Issued a correction over the two alerting systems and based on our investigation to date the bureau believes that a combination of human error and inadequate safeguards contributed to this false alert. With respect to human error due to a miscommunication between the midnight shift supervisor and dayshift supervisor the drill was run without sufficient supervision. Speaking with the bureau other Emergency Management agencies stressed the importance of proper drill supervision and conducting a drill without proper supervision would not be tolerated. Further the midnight shift supervisor initiated the drill by playing a recording that deviated from the script of the agencies established drill procedure that included the phrase this is not a drill. Finally, the warning officer at the terminal failed to recognize that this was an exercise even though the other warning officers on duty understood this is not a real emergency. With respect to inadequate safeguards most partly there were no procedures in place to prevent a Single Person from mistakenly sending o