Folks, this post from Fox17, Nashville, is kind of a generic warning article, but the key here is IT DID HAPPEN, and has happened before. There is in real life, very little to do in blocking a serious attack- and amateur radio could be activated quickly to help compensate, it depends on what portion of the system is hacked. Remember that in trunked systems, ALL communication traffic must be cleared and handled through their computers.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Your call for a lifeline could be shut down as cyber-attacks on 911 are becoming more common.  Hackers are trying to block 911 systems right here in middle Tennessee.

A quick response to your call is what we expect in an emergency, but some calls only end up in a busy signal thanks to hackers. "It is very real, and it's already happened," IT Specialist Tabitha Hawk said. Most recently here in the mid-state, Henry County's 911 system was hacked with ransomware in summer 2016, taking over computer files, wanting money in return. The virus shut down before attacking the call system, but years of 911 records had been wiped clean. Without a back-up, years of emergency response and service data would have been lost.

"I've been here now 22 years, and I've never had anything like this happen before," Henry County 911 Director Mark Archer said. "We thought we had everything buckled down." The hackers found a back door through mobile police car and ambulance systems. They launched a virus, which attached itself to files and spread through the Computer Aided Dispatch server.

"When you call in, that's where everything is recorded," Archer said. "'What's wrong, where are you at?' All those things are recorded in the CAD. So it [the virus] shut that stuff down." If a caller didn't know where they were, police wouldn't have been able to find them. Federal investigators are still working to find who's responsible for this.

According to the Department of Homeland Security in November 2016, attacks on the 911 system have increased ten-fold in the past five years. Tabitha Hawk said hacking and pranking the 911 systems in the US is even easier through phones. "It's the one that's probably hardest to curtail, and probably the easiest to create programs for," Hawk said.

One of the most well-known attacks to 911 happened in November in five states, starting with a teen in Arizona. Meetkumar Desai is accused of programming a link through Twitter to take control of phones and dial 911 over and over. "With all these people calling the number, it jams the phone line so real emergencies can't get in," Hawk said.  Apple has since fixed the bug that allowed that hack, but the system remains vulnerable to other attacks.

"We see cyber-attacks every day in the news with a security breach of somebody's personal information or whatever it is," Williamson County 911 Director Stephen Martini said. "Anything that's in a computer environment has potential to be hacked."

These phone calls tied to computer systems, as seen at the Williamson County 911 Center. "A lot of people think 'Oh this is funny. This is a prank,' but it can literally have life and death consequences," Hawk said. It's as much of a threat throughout Tennessee and the rest of the country as it is here in the mid-state.

Software is always being updated, and preparations always made, making sure your calls are answered. "When downloading apps to your iPhone, only get them through the app store because those pass apple standards against hacking," Hawk said.

ARES: Be trained, be ready!