EAS Public Notices Underscore Need for More Focus on EAS System, Say Experts

The issue of unauthorized EAS messages underscores a problem that is behavioral and technical, said Suzanne Goucher, president of Maine Association of Broadcasters. The false EAS alerts are a source of frustration, she said: Every time it happens, “confidence in the system gets diminished.” The EAS community and FCC must do a better job of getting the word out to movie producers, advertising agencies and others that "they can’t fire off EAS tones outside of an alert or authorized test," she said.

Technical weaknesses must be addressed, Goucher said. Some method of authentication is needed to indicate the message is authorized, she said. The industry should focus its attention on a solution, she said: If the Federal Emergency Management Agency “wants to do another national test next year, we’ve got to get working on some of this stuff.”

One PN stemmed from the illegal use of an EAS alert during The Bobby Bones Show that was on AT&T U-Verse. The message was transmitted Oct. 24, with a date stamp set for a future date, the bureau said. The bureau also urged EAS participants to check their equipment in case the alert is in the queue for a future date. The bureau, FEMA and Department of Homeland Security are conducting an inquiry “into the technical, operational and policy implications of this incident,” the bureau said in the PN.

The tone shouldn’t have aired, Premiere Networks, syndicator of the show, said in a statement: “We are cooperating fully with the authorities and are taking aggressive action to prevent it from recurring. We deeply regret the error.”

The Broadcast Warning Working Group contacted member stations to ensure they weren’t accidentally harboring the stored alert, said Adrienne Abbott, chairwoman of the Nevada State Emergency Communications Committee. So far, there has been no sign of the message, she said. Abbott said she’s disappointed the FCC didn’t immediately take action against the network. The sender intended to send those tones and the wording of the PN indicates the FCC "backed so far away from this false activation,” she said. The notice refers to the incident having occurred “when a syndicated radio broadcast inappropriately transmitted a recording of an EAS alert” with an emergency action notification (EAN) event code, it said. “It’s not a show or something inanimate that did this,” Abbott said. The commission should have taken a more aggressive stance, she said. But it’s fortunate “it has happened on a rather obscure level,” Abbott added.

Abbott challenged the bureau’s question on how EAS participants determine and manage message authentication. “This is contradictory to other FCC rules,” she said, referring to the FCC’s clarification that an EAN must be transmitted upon receipt without delay. The system isn’t set up for people to stop and check the authenticity of an EAN or any other activation, she said. “We’ve known for years that there were vulnerabilities in the EAS system.” Illegal broadcasts of EAS messages aren’t common, said CEO Terry Bush of Trilithic, an EAS equipment maker. Trilithic has taken measures to prevent EAS tones from being stored on broadcasters’ systems, he said. But if it were to happen again, “it would be a big deal,” he said.

Initial comments on the PN addressing unauthorized EAS alerts are due Dec. 5, replies Dec. 19. Comments on the security best practices are due Dec. 30, the bureau said.

Broadcasters should take this opportunity to revisit their practices “and to ensure that their employees understand never to broadcast the EAS codes or Attention Signal or a simulation thereof outside of an actual emergency,” Wiley Rein attorneys said in a blog post.