La Plata County has switched its emergency notification system from CodeRED to LPC Alerts following a nationwide data breach that prompted many CodeRED customers to change providers.
CodeRED, the public alert system used to notify county residents by cellphone, email and text message about emergencies in their area, was purchased by an international company last year. In November, the company fell victim to a cyberattack, said Rob Farino, office of emergency management director for La Plata County.
Hackers captured CodeRED’s data, and the county lost its ability to send FEMA Integrated Public Alert & Warning System alerts as a result, Farino said.
It remains unclear whether data from individuals registered through the La Plata County program was compromised. Farino said the company had been obfuscatory. However, he added that the system stored only names, addresses and contact information – all of which are public and regularly accessed by many counties.
As other governments moved away from CodeRED, La Plata County waited until February.
“We were hesitant to switch, because CodeRED has become so ubiquitous,” he said.
But the system had become too difficult to work with. There were delays, and customer service had been transferred overseas.
“It was just not working at all,” he said.
In February, after another failed simulation alert, Farino said, “I just made the decision that we’ve got to jump ship like everybody else.”
The new alert program, LPC Alerts, was fully adopted this week. After some initial troubleshooting, including an email informing residents they needed to manually re-enroll, the county resolved the issue.
All residents previously registered for CodeRED alerts will automatically be enrolled in the new system.
“This one’s simple for the dispatchers and for OEM to use, and has a lot of robust features – more than CodeRED had. So it was a no-brainer,” Farino said.
Another benefit: the cost. The county will pay about $10,000 a year for LPC Alerts, compared with $22,000 for CodeRED.
As of Monday night, about 30,000 unique names and contacts were signed up for LPC Alerts, which included people previously signed up for CodeRED – minus some duplicate names.
Residents who are not enrolled but would like to be can sign up at www.lpcgov.org/LPCAlerts.
jbowman@durangoherald.com
