The Small Packet of Bits That Can Save (or Destabilize) a City

The Emergency Alert System (EAS) and its SAME (Specific Area Message Encoding) protocol are public alerting technologies that broadcast short digital bursts over VHF triggering emergency messages on millions of receivers across North America. In Mexico, this technology was integrated into the Seismic Alert System (SASMEX) which more than 30 million people in the central part of the country rely on to prepare for frequent earthquakes. While new alerting technologies have emerged, the EAS-SAME network continues to play an important role for public safety in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. Yet, the same small packets of bits that can help protect a city could also, in the wrong hands, destabilize it. This talk examines how these systems operate and reveals a troubling truth: spoofing these alerts is far easier than most people expect.