SoftBank pauses earthquake and tsunami alerts due to PHP security issue
SoftBank Corp. has temporarily halted its emergency earthquake and tsunami alerts after discovering a vulnerability in the PHP code that powers the service, planning to restart it on Monday.
The Japanese telecom operator announced that emergency alerts for earthquakes, tsunamis and other disasters were stopped at 6:47 a.m. on Friday because of a security flaw in the PHP programming language. The suspension applies to SoftBank customers as well as users of its budget brands Ymobile and Linemo. During the outage, phones will not emit warning sounds even if a strong quake is forecast, prompting the company to advise users to rely on alternative warning apps. SoftBank expects to reactivate the service on Monday.
Why it matters
The pause disables automatic disaster warnings for millions of users, raising safety concerns during earthquakes and tsunamis.
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