An early-morning emergency alert mistakenly warning of an incoming ballistic missile attack was dispatched to cellphones across Hawaii on Saturday, setting off widespread panic in a state that was already on edge because of escalating tensions between the United States and North Korea.

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To safeguard from such mishaps that can be caused by a single user, in SAMBRO, we had introduced two user roles: a) Alert-Author (one to edit the message) and b) Alert-Approver (a supervisor who authenticates the message before dissemination). Four-eyes principle is common practice with such sensitive actions. The approval can be done with a mobile handheld with the a login and a couple of clicks.

Even if such a mistake was made, the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) provides a mechanism for cancelling such erroneous messages. The CAP-enabled SAMBRO provides functionality to invoke the cancellation process. The cancel button, in the image below, doesn’t mean cancel what you have been doing, instead it is intended to issue a cancellation message that revokes the previously issued message.