On Saturday night local time, smartphones suddenly lit up in several Brazilian states. They displayed a warning of the category “extreme alert level” and the cryptic text “misantropi4” — a reference to the Portuguese word for misanthropy, “misantropia,” in the typical hacker spelling (leetspeak).
The affected states included São Paulo, Mato Grosso do Sul, Rio de Janeiro, Paraná, and the Federal District. In total, the government counted ten such dubious warning messages sent via the cell broadcast system — a technology also used in Germany since 2022. The platform was temporarily taken offline.
The Brazilian government believes this was a cyberattack and has launched forensic investigations. Wolnei Wolff, the responsible secretary at the Ministry of Integration and Regional Development, said it is currently impossible to determine how many devices the attackers reached, as it was an “unofficial” warning. The investigation is expected to deliver results soon and make the platform more secure.
The warning system is operated by the national communications agency Anatel. It apparently does not see the cause with the telecom providers but points to the civil defense warning platform. The incident is likely to be of interest to other countries with cell broadcast systems, such as Germany. In Germany, there has already been misuse of the Katwarn warning app, though not a cyberattack: last summer, the district administration of Bad Dürkheim called on thousands of people to sing the Palatinate anthem — a mistake the authority acknowledged.
Source: www.heise.de
