The Brazilian government announced on Saturday morning that a fraudulent alert containing a mysterious message was sent to mobile phones in several states across Brazil, suspected to be the work of hackers.
The word “misantropi4” lit up on the device. This is the alphanumeric spelling of the Portuguese word “misantropia” (meaning “hater of humans” in English). The last letter “a” has been replaced with the number “4”. This is a technique often used by hackers and is called “reetspeak.”
The alert, classified as a state of emergency, was first received in the southern state of Paraná, but a second alert was issued minutes later for mobile phones in the major cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
Brazilian authorities have announced that the National Civil Defense’s warning platform has been taken offline, possibly after being targeted by a hacker attack, and said the government is working to restore the tool as soon as all security conditions are restored.
Brazil’s National Civil Defense Agency said in a statement that the false alarm was triggered remotely by someone not participating in the national civil protection and defense system.
“The message sent was of the ‘extreme alarm’ type and included the word ‘misanthrope’, which means hatred towards humanity. It was probably a hacker attack,” authorities said in a statement.
The São Paulo Civil Defense Department said in a statement that the alert was not sent by any agent and so far there are no recorded incidents related to what was reported that would justify the issuance of an extreme alert.
The statement also said that the Cellbroadcast tool used to send critical and extreme alerts is managed by Anatel (National Telecommunications Agency) and has been temporarily disabled. São Paulo’s civil defense agency said it had contacted Anatel and other agencies involved in operating the system to investigate the origin of the messages.
CNN Brazil contacted Anatel but has not yet received a response.
In addition to the alert through the Cellbroadcast platform, residents of the city of São Paulo also reported receiving similar messages via SMS.
The Paraná state government said the alert was not triggered by the state’s civil defense and that no serious situation was expected in Curitiba. The state said it had contacted the National Civil Defense Agency and Anatel about the matter.
Meanwhile, Rio de Janeiro’s Civil Defense Agency confirmed that no official alert had been issued, saying that the messages users received were “due to instability in the IDAP/Cell Broadcast Alert Transmission System, a platform under the responsibility of the National Civil Defense Agency in coordination with the federal government.”
The agency also said there are no dangerous conditions related to the natural disaster to issue a warning for Rio de Janeiro residents and that it continues to monitor the situation. Rio residents also reported receiving SMS messages related to the alert.
CNN Brazil’s Marcelo Medeiros contributed reporting.
