Hackers took control of Brazil’s national emergency alert system and sent threatening messages to millions of mobile phones, causing widespread alarm and forcing officials to shut the platform down. The attack began at 11:40 p.m. on Friday night and continued into Saturday, when at least 10 severe alerts were sent to more than 30 million phones across seven states.
The messages were distributed through Cell Broadcast technology, which can bypass a phone’s silent mode and trigger a loud emergency tone designed for nearby natural disasters. Users who woke up in panic saw the word “misantropi4” on their screens, a distorted version of the word misanthropy, or hatred of humanity. The alerts did not include dangerous instructions, but because they used the highest alert category, reserved for life-saving emergencies, they sparked mass fear.
Brazil’s Ministry of Integration and Regional Development shut the system off at 1:30 a.m. to stop the attack. Cyber experts say Cell Broadcast systems worldwide have a structural weakness because they lack cryptographic authentication, so devices cannot verify that a message truly came from an official source.
Officials and commentators in Brazil said the biggest damage may be social rather than technical. The alert system was built to save lives during floods and landslides, which are common in the country, but authorities now fear people may ignore the siren or treat it as a prank in a real emergency. The Federal Police has opened an investigation, and the system will remain disabled until further notice.
