Crisis24 has limited access to its CodeRED emergency alert platform while the company reviews potential vulnerabilities, according to notices from local agencies that use the system. Los Alamos County, N.M., said CodeRED notified officials at 5:52 p.m. Nov. 13 about possible issues and briefly suspended access before restoring service with limited capabilities.
“There is no indication that any customer data or personal information has been compromised,” Ann Pickren, a senior vice president for CodeRED, said in a statement quoted by Los Alamos County.
Fort Worth, Texas, told residents the vendor removed access to the legacy CodeRED software after detecting potential security risks. The city said that, out of caution, FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System is disconnecting alerting authorities that originate messages through CodeRED, and that backup paths remain available.
Other jurisdictions reported limits or outages between Nov. 10 and Nov. 14. Weld County, Colo., said the vendor took CodeRED offline Nov. 10 and emphasized the outage does not affect 911. Douglas County, Colo., described a statewide CodeRED outage and said contingency plans are in place. Glenn County, Calif., urged residents to use Nixle during what it called a systemwide outage. Cascade County, Mont., postponed a public CodeRED test and later moved to end its contract, citing a weeklong disruption.
CodeRED is marketed by Crisis24, which says the product, formerly known as OnSolve CodeRED, supports alerts across text messages, email, phone and IPAWS.
Other vendors have reported security incidents affecting public communications in recent weeks. On Oct. 29, Calvert County, Md., said its Everbridge emergency-notification account was compromised and sent an unauthorized message to 12,409 subscribers before officials disabled the platform during a security review. In early October, Memphis-Shelby County Schools said Finalsite, a K-12 mass-messaging provider, suspended services after a security breach; the district reported no data impact and shifted to backups.
Officials in multiple jurisdictions said 911 and police dispatch remain operational while CodeRED capabilities are constrained.
Agencies say they will continue to post updates and use alternate channels until CodeRED’s full functionality is restored. Crisis24 has not publicly detailed the vulnerability under review.
