Brazil shuts down emergency alert system after cyberattack

Millions of Brazilians were awakened by unauthorized emergency alerts on their mobile phones overnight Friday into Saturday, in what authorities are investigating as a likely cyberattack on the national civil defense warning system. The government has taken the platform offline while federal police investigate the breach.

The false notifications, classified as "Extreme Alert" and accompanied by the system's distinctive, piercing alarm sound, were sent to phones across multiple states, including Paraná, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, Bahia, Pará, Mato Grosso do Sul, and Acre. The primary message displayed was "misantropi4," a leetspeak variation of the Portuguese word for misanthropy, meaning hatred of humanity. Officials confirmed that at least ten unauthorized alerts were tracked.

In a statement, Brazil's Civil Defense authority said the messages were "remotely ordered by someone outside the national system" and that "everything leads us to believe it was a hacker attack." Civil Defense Secretary Wolnei Wolff told a news conference that millions of citizens received the alerts. The system was ultimately shut down entirely at 1:30 a.m. on Saturday.