Hacker reveals plan to occupy airwaves.

[mibzzer15]

The ABC7 News I-Team has discovered that some of the same people who launched the Occupy movement are now considering a plan to occupy the airwaves. By hijacking radio and television stations, they could create a nationwide panic.

The aim for these activists would be to broadcast their own message across the country. It sounds incredible, but after talking to the activists, to engineers and to those who oversee the broadcast industry, deep in the Sierra foothills, down a long country road, a computer expert's been working on a plan. Just call him "Jake."

"The potential is that you could hijack all radio and TV stations across the country," says Jake.

Computer hacker reveals plan to occupy airwaves | abc7news.com

 

[scanningisfun]

He will get into big trouble when he decides to do that. From what I have read, the EAS didn't work well for the test.

 

[sc800]

Maybe the FCC Enforcement people will actually move quickly on this one, hopefully.

 

[Confuzzled]

While I support the effort and their message, this clearly isn't the way to go about it.

 

[Hooligan]

While much of the US population may be either amused or ambivalent by the current "Occupy!" comedic dramas on the streets & in parks, you start messing with our television, and us fat, lazy Americans are going to take to the streets to beat-up anyone resembling a beatnik with out remote controls.

Besides that, EAS is a White House system, and you mess with them & you're in for trouble. John MacDougall got off easy 25 years ago, but that won't be the case with active EAS hacking.

Of course to top it off, any "Occupy!" punk's efforts to intrude onto the EAS will just result in millions of taxpayers dollars having to be spent to improve the security of the system. That's money that could otherwise possibly have been spent on basic quality of life improvements for all of us.


"Occupy JAILS!"

/-/ooligan

 

[KD0LDK]

Technically these are terroristic threats, are they not? Many definitions are that any person or group causing widespread fear or panic, is terrorism. I'd imagine if they went through with this and ended up causing widespread panic, they would be charged as terrorists.

 

[b7spectra]

HeHe! If the Occutards do in fact "hijack" any of the airwaves, they do FEDERAL time. You get sent to the federal pen, there is NO release until you have served ALL the time. I say let them do it!

 

[scanningisfun]

HeHe! If the Occutards do in fact "hijack" any of the airwaves, they do FEDERAL time. You get sent to the federal pen, there is NO release until you have served ALL the time. I say let them do it!

Occutards?!?! lololololol

 

[gmclam]

Federal indeed

I highly doubt any of these people could interrupt one station, let alone across the country.

 

[mancow]

I bet the only thing they manage to accomplish is the addition of a few more gigs of data on some nsa harddrives somewhere, customized just for them.

 

[SCPD]

The technical feasibility (or lack thereof) is far more interesting than the political name calling. Can this thread please remain on-topic?

 

[RadioDitch]

The technical feasibility (or lack thereof) is far more interesting than the political name calling. Can this thread please remain on-topic?

Let me put it like this. If a 16 year old can hack the Pentagon e-mail system (everybody remember that one?) then I'm sure someone could get into the EAS. It might not work 100%, but I think if they were competent enough they could probably make more than enough of an impact.

And I agree...politics are best left out of this topic.

 

[Confuzzled]

Let me put it like this. If a 16 year old can hack the Pentagon e-mail system (everybody remember that one?) then I'm sure someone could get into the EAS. It might not work 100%, but I think if they were competent enough they could probably make more than enough of an impact.

Why wouldn't they just plant a Trojan with a dated payload at a number of TV or radio stations? When it launched, it would override whatever programming they had on the air at the time.

Many stations now are owned by the same companies, so their software and systems are probably similar, if not the same.

 

[reedeb]

While I support the effort and their message, this clearly isn't the way to go about it.

Sorry I don't support ANY of it. [without getting political] It's plain nuts. As for this latest crapload, I wish they would try. Watch all their support go downhill.

 

[Utah_Viper]

Call me a conspirist....... Anyone else find it kind of ironic timing that this is right after (a bareley admitted) failure of a test? Is this a ploy as someone else wondered to get funding for a "security upgrade?"

 

[902]

Ehhhhh... another country heard from.

There isn't a "they".

Putting things into deeper perspective, he claims to be in touch with "Anonymous" but that's a doubious claim since "Anonymous" is the default setting on Japanese-themed imageboards and anyone who doesn't populate a reply box with a name is (by default) "Anonymous". These seem to be mostly bored, better-than-average intelligence script kiddies who like to share racy pictures more than a credible, organized activist movement. By saying he's in touch with "Anonymous" essentially admits he's a "/b/tard", and nothing more.

Without getting graphic, there are a number of vulnerabilities to ANY system. Some are anticipated and some are not. We've debated this for P25, there are even electronic warfare specialists who actually do things we can only imagine (and happily, they are on OUR side!). But Comic Guy from the Simpsons is not that. He's more like Wiley Coyote, Super Genius. Chances are that whatever he or "they" do will be picking low-hanging fruit. Industry and regulatory action will be knee-jerk and will have broadsweeping ramifications. Expect legislation outlawing Guy Fawkes masks soon.

And why can't the news devote almost 7 minutes to our military in Afghanistan or Iraq, or to economic recovery strategies, or to Presidential candidates' views on "issues" instead? Must be sweeps week.

 

[myspacebarisbroken]

This sounds like the ploy from the movie UHF when Weird Al's scientist friend remotely hijacks the channel 8 station to send their own message.

 

[ElroyJetson]

These fleabaggers are a particularly annoying bunch. But to avoid getting your radio station hijacked, all you have to do is pull the right ethernet plug. Run in local mode off your own media servers for a while.


I dare them to do it. The federal prisons have room for them.

 

[MTS2000des]

reminds me of the guy in Florida back in the 1980's when his TVRO "big dish" satellite feed of some cable network went encrypted. He had an uplink station and overtook their uplink during a prime time show and transmitted an obscene message.

he also got Federal time for doing it.

 

[Squad10]

Reminds me of the WGN-TV intrusion I saw occur live. Wish I could have seen the WTTW incident instead, more entertaining.

On November 22, 1987, an unidentified man wearing a Max Headroom mask intercepted the signals of two television stations in Chicago. Independent station WGN-TV (now a CW affiliate), owned by Tribune Company, was hijacked first. Its signal was hijacked during the sports report on its 9:00 pm newscast for about 25 seconds. Then came PBS station WTTW, where the man was seen and heard uttering garbled remarks before dropping his trousers, and was then spanked with a flyswatter before the screen went black. The interception occurred at about 11:00 pm during an episode of Doctor Who entitled Horror of Fang Rock and lasted almost 90 seconds. To this day, none of the individuals responsible for the intrusion have been identified. This incident got the attention of the CBS Evening News the next day and was talked about nationwide.