By Larry Paulausky, Vice-Chair Arizona SECC

A reminder for those who may have missed this info:  a digital signing certificate used by FEMA for its IPAWS service will be expiring in the next few days.  Certificates like this are designed to help recipients automatically authenticate IPAWS messages, and by design these certificates regularly expire to be replaced by updated versions.

To continue to receive IPAWS messages on your EAS devices, most end users like broadcasters and cable systems will need to update the certificate settings in their device.  Please check with your device’s manufacturer for instructions on how to do this.

For Sage’s ENDEC systems, have a look at their home page at https://www.sagealertingsystems.com.

For Digital Alert System’s DASDEC devices, see their field service bulletin accessible at http://www.digitalalertsystems.com/DAS_pages/resources_fsb.html .

For most users whose devices are otherwise at current software levels and already receiving IPAWS messages, these updates are free to download and install.  Please do so by the expiration date to keep receiving EAS messages (for example, AMBER alerts and Required Monthly Tests) via IPAWS.

By the way, the next certificate will be valid until August 21, 2021, so you may want to mark your calendars for July of next year to check again with your device’s manufacturer at that time for the next needed update.