Talk about a state of emergency.

It was just one year ago this week at 807 and Hawaii time, January 13, 2018, that an alert

went out to cell phones throughout the islands.

Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii.

Seek immediate shelter.

This is not a drill, it read.

For the next 38 minutes, there was near pandemonium.

Some islanders and tourists were confused.

Others were terrified and panic, shutting windows, taking cover in bathrooms and basements,

crowding into police stations, seeking shelter and parking garages.

One man had a heart attack.

It took 38 minutes before a correction went out from the state's emergency management agency.

No North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un had not unleashed one of his recently tested intercontinental

ballistic missiles on the Hawaiian islands.

It was a big, giant mistake.

An agency employee during a shift changeover had inadvertently pressed the wrong button.

Really, one worker can press one wrong button and create panic throughout an entire state.

How exactly can that happen?

What's been done to make sure it doesn't happen again?

And what does this say about how vulnerable are the country's emergency alert systems to

say outside hackers and foreign adversaries who might try to do the same thing?

That's our subject on this episode of Beryn Treasurer.

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