Till the time this article is published or read, most of the readers of Cybersecurity Insiders might have got a text message on their respective mobile that was designed to test whether the unused US emergency communications system was working properly or not.
And the fact about this message is that there was no way to opt out, except switching your device off or otherwise tweaking it to airplane mode.
Though most of the 200 million of US populace who received the alert described the test as a “Trump Alert” preparing for Mid Term Elections- it has to notified over here that the 45Th US President wasn’t involved in this activity on a personal note for sure.
The alert was intended to keep the US population informed about major threats such as missile attacks, acts of terrorism, natural disasters and also Cyber Attacks.
Now, to all those who aren’t aware of this alert, the test was actually mandated by Congress in 2015 and was necessary to be run at least once every three years. The members who suggested this act also specified clearly in the mandate that the notifications system must be used only when Natural or man-made disasters strike and not for a political campaign.
Note- The test was scheduled for 2:18 PM Eastern Time and will be present on the home screens of mobile devices for 40 minutes or till the user dismisses the message. It was sent by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Only 36,000 were reported to be sent in the Obama era and more such notifications are expected to follow in the Era of Trump.
Meanwhile, the news is out that two agents who were assigned with the duty of investigating Russian interference in the 2016 US Elections exchanged text messages referring the current US president as an “IDIOT”. As soon as the reports reached the table of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, he immediately removed one of the agents named Peter Strzok. The other agent Lisa Page ended her assignment with Mueller’s office prior to the revelation of this incident in July 2018.
