I barely slept last night: Hackers sent an extreme alert to millions of Brazilians using the governments own tools, and thats a huge concern

Date:
Mon, 22 Jun 2026 11:56:22 +0000

Description:
Hackers breached government systems in Brazil to send millions of people a mysterious extreme alert.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Millions of Brazilians received an unauthorized government alert The text simply read misanthropi4 and its unknown who sent it The government has denied it was responsible, pointing towards hackers If youre based in the US, you might know about AMBER alerts, also known as Wireless Emergency Alerts , which are mass-broadcast messages sent to every smartphone in a designated area. Several other nations have similar platforms in place, including Brazil but many Brazilians recently learned that their emergency alert system wasnt quite as secure as they might have hoped.

In the early hours of Saturday morning, millions of Brazilians were jolted awake by a mysterious message from the countrys alert system. The alert level was classified as extreme, and concerningly, its thought it was the work of hackers rather than any official body. The message, which was sent to civilians in the southern state of Paran and the cities of So Paulo and Rio
de Janeiro, among others, simply read misantropi4. Thats an approximation of the Portuguese word misanthropia, (with the final A swapped for a 4). As with the English word misanthropy, it means a hatred or distrust of humanity. Latest Videos From Watch full video here:

The message was accompanied by a loud alarm sound normally reserved for particularly severe thunderstorms. Since the text was sent shortly after midnight local time, it ensured that many people were woken up in the middle of the night.

Brazilian authorities said that the emergency message system was taken
offline after a probable hacker attack, suggesting that this was more than just a simple text sent out in error by the government. Indeed, there was no event or natural disaster serious enough to warrant the alert being activated at the time, which further points towards bad actors being responsible. You may like HP warns hackers are turning popular remote access tools into dangerous, stealthy backdoors Pushpaganda exploits Google Discover to spread malicious notifications Mobile cyberattack in Toronto causes 13 million network disruptions A potentially devastating attack An example of the text sent by hackers to Brazilian civilians. (Image credit: BrazilianSwainSimp on Reddit) The fact that hackers were able to breach a government system that
has the potential to communicate with every mobile device in a given area of the country has worrying implications, both for the ways civilians could be manipulated and for the security of government institutions as a whole.

A text from a known government source is likely to be trusted more than one from an unknown number. With access to Brazils emergency broadcast system, hackers could potentially send out fraudulent messages that might have a larger impact than normal. That opens the door for all kinds of nefarious activities. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up
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For now, this attack seems to have had a relatively minor impact. For many Brazilians posting on social media, the text was confusing more than anything else.

Last-Educator3947 on Reddit , for example, said I live in the town where the alert was first sent. It happened five minutes after the Brazil x Haiti World Cup game. My anxious brain associated misanthropy with a violent attack on
the people celebrating in the streets after the game. I thought it was an incel Discord hacker sending a message to start a The Purge-style attack.
They then added: Im laughing now but I barely slept last night.

Reddit user Magnon , meanwhile, summed up the situation by saying that it, Sounds like an anime villain just spawned.

According to the International Cyber Digest newsletter on X, this breach
could be linked to a previous hack of a Brazilian government employee who was infected with an infostealer . International Cyber Digest claims that stolen credentials included government logins, emails, developmental and staging environments, and more.

Whether or not this is what gave hackers access to the Brazilian governments alert system isnt yet known. Either way, it demonstrates the power that hackers can accrue if they find a way into supposedly secure governmental systems. While this alert saga turned out to be relatively harmless, that might not be the case next time. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us
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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/computing/cyber-security/i-barely-slept-last-night-h ackers-sent-an-extreme-alert-to-millions-of-brazilians-using-the-governments-o wn-tools-and-thats-a-huge-concern


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