Suspected Cyberattack Sends Fake Emergency Alert to Phones Across Brazil

Summary

A suspected cyberattack led to a fake emergency alert, containing the leetspeak term 'misantropi4', being sent to phones across several regions in Brazil. The country's emergency alert system was taken offline by officials to investigate the security failure. The attack reportedly exploited weak security measures, including a decade-old compromised government employee credential.

Full text

Security Cyber Attacks Cyber CrimeSuspected Cyberattack Sends Fake Emergency Alert to Phones Across Brazil Brazil’s alert system was taken offline after a fake emergency alert reached phones, with officials investigating a suspected cyberattack and security failure. byDeeba AhmedJune 25, 20262 minute read Listen to this article 0:00 — ← 10s ▶ Play 10s → Speed 0.75× 1× 1.25× 1.5× 2× Voice Loading voices… Press play to start listening Last week, Brazil’s emergency alert system was taken offline after a suspected cyberattack sent fake warnings to phones across several regions. People in several parts of Brazil woke up on Saturday morning to a strange emergency text message on their mobile phones. The message appeared as an Extreme Alert containing the word “misantropi4,” a version of the Portuguese word “misantropia,” meaning hatred toward humanity. It is suspected that hackers replaced the letter “a” in “misantropia” with the number “4,” creating “misantropi4,” a leetspeak style often used in hacker culture. This false alarm caused a lot of confusion, mainly because no natural disasters or emergencies were occurring. The message first appeared on phones in the southern state of Paraná. However, within minutes, it reached people in major cities such as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Some residents also received the text via normal SMS messages. Fake emergency alert received by residents in Brazil (Image via @vxunderground on X) Turning Off the System In Brazil, a tool called Cellbroadcast is used to send out urgent public warnings. It is managed by the country’s National Telecommunications Agency (known as Anatel), and it works just like any other emergency alert system used in other countries, with the basic purpose being to warn citizens about dangerous weather. Because the text came from someone outside the government network, officials had to take the National Civil Defense warning platform offline at around 1:30 a.m. local time. The system will stay disabled until authorities finish checking its security. How the Attack Happened According to an X (formerly Twitter) post from the online malware repository administrator vx-underground, the fake alarm was the work of an individual using the name “mizanthropiaz” who managed to compromise the system because of weak security measures. The post further revealed that a government employee accidentally infected their computer with infostealer malware back in 2016. The malicious software exposed the employee’s username and password. It is shocking that this password was never changed over the last ten years, and was the same as the username. The government network lacked basic security settings. It didn’t require a secure private connection or extra login codes like a text message verification. There was a security puzzle to stop automatic guessing attacks, but it always asked the simple question “2+2=” and never changed. Local civil defense teams across the country confirmed that none of their agents sent the text. Local authorities are now working with Anatel to investigate how the system was breached. Deeba Ahmed Deeba is a veteran cybersecurity reporter at Hackread.com with over a decade of experience covering cybercrime, vulnerabilities, and security events. Her expertise and in-depth analysis make her a key contributor to the platform’s trusted coverage. View Posts BrasilBrazilCyber AttackCyber CrimeCybersecurityEmergency AlertsRio de JaneirOSão Paulo Leave a Reply Cancel reply View Comments (0) Related Posts Read More Security Cyber Attacks Coca-Cola, Bottling Partner Named in Separate Ransomware and Data Breach Claims Coca-Cola and its bottling partner CCEP targeted in separate cyber incidents, with the Everest ransomware gang and the Gehenna hacking group claiming data breaches involving sensitive employee and CRM data. byWaqas Cyber Crime Phishing Scam iCloud phishing scam – Man stole private photos of 620,000 women LA County resident booked in iCloud phishing scam pretended to be an Apple agent and stole 620,000 photos, 9,000 videos of 306 young women. byWaqas Security Database mess up leaks 882 GB of ecommerce & dating sites data A misconfigured Elasticsearch server is responsible for exposing data amounting to more than 370 million records. bySudais Asif Read More News Artificial Intelligence Cyber Attacks Data Breaches Scams and Fraud Memcyco Announces Next-Gen, AI Solution to Combat Fraud and Impersonation Attacks in Real Time Memcyco’s AI-based solution enables organizations of all sizes to better protect their customers from phishing, impersonation fraud and… byWaqas

Indicators of Compromise

• malware — infostealer

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