Business · Wired
The Dumbest Hack of the Year Exposed a Very Real Problem
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◌ Single Source
In the wee hours of the night last April, someone stopped at roughly 20 street intersections across Silicon Valley and launched an unprecedented cyberattack that would eventually spread to multiple states, embarrassing local officials and prompting them to question their security practices.
Key facts
- Government emails and text messages obtained by WIRED through public records requests show how the cities of Menlo Park, Redwood City, Palo Alto, and later Seattle and Denver scrambled to respond
- In the wee hours of the night last April, someone stopped at roughly 20 street intersections across Silicon Valley and launched an unprecedented cyberattack that would eventually spread to multiple
- In Redwood City, then-city manager Melissa Diaz quizzed staff about who should be blamed for the incident
- Nick Mathiowdis, Redwood City’s current communications manager, tells WIRED that staff have been addressing the issue based on “lessons learned and evolving best practices,” but declines to share
Summary
Instead of the normal recordings telling people to either wait or cross the street, pedestrians heard the spoofed voices of billionaire tech CEOs. Government emails and text messages obtained by WIRED through public records requests show how the cities of Menlo Park, Redwood City, Palo Alto, and later Seattle and Denver scrambled to respond to the crosswalk button tampering. In Redwood City, then-city manager Melissa Diaz quizzed staff about who should be blamed for the incident. Nick Mathiowdis, Redwood City’s current communications manager, tells WIRED that staff have been addressing the issue based on “lessons learned and evolving best practices,” but declines to share details to avoid encouraging further hacks.