SCEMD Issues Notice About Emergency Notification System Offline

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November 24, 2025

Emergency Alerts Will Continue to Reach South Carolinians

Columbia, S.C. – The South Carolina Emergency Management Division (SCEMD) is alerting residents to a nationwide outage of the CodeRED notification system, one of several alert tools used by emergency management agencies in South Carolina. The outage follows a cybersecurity incident reported by the system’s vendor, Onsolve, earlier this month.

Due to the outage, SCEMD is currently unable to access FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) through the CodeRED platform. However, SCEMD and local agencies that use CodeRED for local alerts can still issue IPAWS alerts through alternate backup systems, including the FEMA IPAWS Technical Support Services Line. IPAWS alerts, including Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs), will continue to be delivered to South Carolina residents in the event of an emergency or disaster.

This outage does not impact alerts issued by the National Weather Service, which will continue to appear on wireless devices, NOAA Weather Radios, and media broadcasts.

The vendor has stated that the data that has been compromised due to the cybersecurity incident may include subscriber names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, and/or associated passwords. There is currently no indication that this information has been published online, but it has the potential to be leaked, according to CodeRED Onsolve. If the same password used for CodeRED is used by subscribers for any other personal or business accounts, those passwords should be changed immediately, according to the vendor.

The vendor has begun transitioning customers to a new secure system, CodeRED by Crisis24, using backup data that is current as of March 31, 2025.

SCEMD encourages residents to take the following steps:

  • Ensure Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs) are enabled on mobile devices.
  • Maintain multiple methods for receiving emergency warnings, including NOAA Weather Radio, local news outlets, and official social media channels.
  • Follow your local emergency management agency for real-time updates.
  • If you reuse passwords across personal or business accounts, change any passwords associated with CodeRED immediately, per the vendor’s recommendation.

SCEMD will remain in communication with Crisis24 regarding this cybersecurity incident and with the FEMA IPAWS Technical Support Services Facility.