Thousands of citizens in Brazil received fake messages on Saturday, June 20, prompting the government to suspect a cyberattack behind an unauthorized emergency alert sent to cell phones across multiple states. Citing an official statement, news agency Reuters reported that the National Secretariat for Protection and Civil Defense stated that the country's notification system was completely taken offline at around 1:30 a.m. local time (0430 GMT) following the security breach.
The report added that the platform was deactivated as a precautionary measure, and officials intend to reactivate the system as quickly as possible once full safety conditions are restored.
What Was the Alert About?
As per a report in CNN Brasil, the unauthorized notifications utilized the Cellbroadcast tool, an extreme emergency system managed by Anatel (the National Telecommunications Agency) that is typically reserved for severe and critical public safety warnings. Instead of a weather or disaster warning, hackers remotely triggered a message containing variations of the word misanthropy – spelled as misantropi4 in the text. According to the Michaelis Online Dictionary, the term translates to a horror of humanity or aversion to human nature.
Reportedly, the fake extreme alert was rolled out in waves. It was initially sent to mobile devices in the southern state of Paraná, followed just a few minutes later by a second warning triggered on phones in the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
What the Government Official Said
Government officials confirmed that the unauthorized alert was sent remotely. The Defesa Civil Alerta (National Civil Defense), a Brazilian federal agency linked to the Ministry of Integration and Regional Development (MIDR), posted an official statement on X. The statement read: The Defesa Civil Alerta dispatch platform was taken offline at 1:30 a.m. this Saturday (6/20), after suffering a breach and issuing an alert to various regions of the country, remotely ordered by someone outside the National System of Protection and Civil Defense. The message issued was of the Extreme Alert type and contained the word 'misanthropy' — which means hatred of humanity. It is likely a hacker attack. The National Secretariat of Protection and Civil Defense of the Ministry of Integration and Regional Development will activate the Federal Police and take the necessary measures to reconnect the system as quickly as possible, once all security conditions have been restored.
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