Confusion over 911 outage in Massachusetts triggers emergency call in New York

Tuesday afternoon, residents of the Hudson Valley were surprised by a public safety alert from the New York City Department of Emergency Management, which somewhat confusingly stated: “New York State 9-1-1 services are operational and ready for use. There are currently no known issues with New York State 9-1-1 services.”

So what was the reason for the emergency call? So far, everything was business as usual. In fact, the purpose of the call itself was not immediately clear, as it continued: “If you have problems with Massachusetts 9-1-1, follow the instructions of the State of Massachusetts.”

It took a quick online search to figure out the meaning of this alert: Our neighbors in Massachusetts experienced a widespread 911 outage, and residents were warned of delays in emergency response. State officials urged them to contact local public safety agencies in the event of an emergency.

Massachusetts uses a Next Generation 911 (NG911) system. This system improves emergency communications by utilizing an Internet Protocol (IP) platform, allowing for greater accuracy of location data and the ability to receive text, images, and video from the public. Many cybersecurity experts (including those at the Department of Homeland Security) have expressed concerns that NG911 systems are particularly vulnerable to cyberattacks, although no immediate confirmation was provided as to whether this was a cyberattack, nor would such immediate confirmation be expected.

In late April, state authorities confirmed that Lowell, Massachusetts, had been the victim of a major cyberattack. The hack, attributed to the Play ransomware group, affected various city systems, including servers, networks and phones, but not the city’s 911, fire or emergency call systems. City authorities quickly isolated the affected systems to prevent further damage and began a comprehensive recovery process involving state and federal agencies.

Digital communication systems can also be subject to hardware and software errors, which have already led to temporary failures of emergency call centers in the past.

A closer look revealed widespread misinformation circulating on social media about the emergency alert, particularly regarding the outage affecting states other than Massachusetts, including New York, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Maine. Some residents outside of Massachusetts reported receiving the Massachusetts emergency alert in their home state. Viral, inaccurate reports of a major outage appear to have been caused, or at least exacerbated, by clickbait headlines like “911 down in Maine, Rhode Island, and New York? Reports emerge after Massachusetts outage.”

A recent study by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found that only 51% of consumers who read an online news article actually read the entire article. Another 26% read part of the article, while 22% only read the headline or a few lines.