An expired IPAWS digital certificate prevented radio stations from receiving FEMA’s IPAWS Required Weekly Test (RWT) on Monday, according to people familiar with the developments.
Broadcasters’ EAS units rejected Monday’s weekly test when the message was flagged as “expired” by most EAS boxes, the sources said. The weekly EAS test message “errored out” on most devices.
Barry Mishkind’s Broadcasters’ Desktop Resource reported that FEMA acknowledged the issue. A statement he attributed to FEMA said:
“We discovered after the IPAWS RWT chron job launched the Monday morning IPAWS RWTs that the associated IPAWS digital certificate in use had expired. As individual EAS devices are required by FCC Rules to check CAP message digital signatures, the EAS device should have flagged the incoming RWT as expired.
“Let’s consider this week to be a test of EAS device security.” the statement read. “We have replaced the expired digital certificate. Next week’s messages will be properly signed with a valid digital certificate.”
Monday’s mixup is similar to issues Radio World reported on in March 2023, when the IPAWS RWT was being rejected by EAS units and declared invalid for several weeks. At the time, FEMA said the digital certificate the agency used to sign its automated RWT messages had expired.
FEMA says EAS devices are required by FCC Rules to check CAP message digital signatures. FEMA uses digital signatures to ensure the authenticity of messages. The IPAWS system checks the digital signature upon receipt and accepts or rejects the message.
FEMA told Radio World in 2023 it would assess its certificate management process and make improvements to prevent future issues.
For stations that did not log a failure for Monday’s test, specifically DASDEC units, FEMA previously suggested checking the EAS device’s configuration and enabling signature checking.
FEMA told broadcasters in 2023 that the expired digital certificate issue does not affect EAS messages sent by local or state authorities. It only affects the IPAWS automated RWTs.
An email to FEMA for further comment about Monday’s issue was not immediately returned.
