Hackers sparked panic in Great Falls when they hacked into television station KRTV’s emergency alert system to warn of a zombie apocalypse.
Viewers were shocked while watching the Steve Wilkos show on KRTV on Monday when the following message appeared at the top of their screens.
It said the “civil authority has issued a local area emergency for the following counties/areas” before naming the regions at risk of flesh-eating hordes.
An audio then informed viewers that the “bodies of the dead are rising from their graves. Follow the messages on the screen that will be updated as information becomes available. Do not attempt to approach or apprehend these bodies as they are considered extremely dangerous.”
KRTV quickly tried to calm the situation by broadcasting the following message on air and on its website.
“Someone apparently hacked into the Emergency Alert System and announced on KRTV and the CW that “dead bodies are rising from their graves” in several Montana counties,” the station reported.
“This message did not originate from KRTV, and there is no emergency. Our engineers are investigating to determine what happened and if it affected other media outlets.”
Lt, Shane Sorensen with the Great Falls Police Department (GFPD) said the police department did receive phone calls from a number of people who were concerned after they saw the message.
“We had four calls checking to see if it was true. And then I thought, ‘Wait. What if?’” Sorensen said with a laugh.
Sorensen is not sure what sort of penalties a person faces, if any, in Montana for hacking into an emergency alert system.
In 1938 filmmaker Orson Wells broadcast a Halloween performance of the radio drama War of the Worlds depicting an alien invasion. Mass hysteria ensued when people tuning into the broadcast took it for the real thing.
No one has claimed responsibility for the stunt, broadcast during an episode entitled “Teen Cheaters Take Lie Detectors.”
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