Thousands in Brazil received a fake ‘ALIEN ATTACK’ emergency alert at 1:30 a.m. Hacker group later claims responsibility for the hack

Thousands of people in Brazil reportedly woke up in the early morning hours recently to an emergency alert on their phones that warned of an alien invasion. According to G1 Globo, quoted by Brobible, the warnings went out at around 1:30 a.m., sent through the country’s official emergency alert system.

The unusual messages were reportedly sent between this past Friday night and the early hours of Saturday. Per G1 Globo, the National Civil Defense issued the warnings to residents in at least seven Brazilian cities during that window.

The agency later said the warning appeared to have been sent out remotely by someone who did not have authorization to do so. Officials said the messages may have been the result of a hacker attack.

At least seven Brazilian cities received the unauthorized alerts

The wording of the alerts reportedly varied from one location to another. Residents of the city of Belo Horizonte said the message they received told them: “Protect yourselves: ALIEN ATTACK, PEOPLE, WE HAVE ARRIVED.”

In São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the message that was sent out apparently contained errors and lacked any real context. That alert read: “misantropo ADRESS RJ burros dms pprt.” According to Gigazine, the characters “misantropi4” are an alphanumeric way of writing part of the Portuguese word “misantropia,” which refers to a mistrust of people. The outlet reported that this is a technique commonly used by hackers known as “leetspeak.”

The Federal Police have reportedly taken over the investigation into how the alerts were sent. Authorities have not yet identified a suspect in connection with the incident. Incidents involving unwanted digital access have also unsettled people in other settings, such as one woman who realized a stranger was watching through her home camera.

An account on X using the handle @mizantropiaz reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack. That account also purportedly showed how they were able to hack into the emergency alert system.

International Cyber Digest said that an investigation has shown that information-stealing malware known as “Infostealer” infected at least one Brazilian government IT official. They added that the malware may have allowed the attacker to gain access to sensitive credentials.

International Cyber Digest indicated that a malicious game installer may have infected the IT official’s home gaming computer while he was working on government infrastructure. Per that statement, the infection could have allowed the hacker to steal browser data that contained passwords and government VPN credentials. Unexpected outcomes from this kind of access are not unheard of, as in the case of a student who found a stranger doing her homework after gaining entry to a portal.

The hacker may also have used very old credentials that the government employee had not updated in many years. The report suggested that these outdated credentials could have played a role in how access was obtained.