An alert message was received by thousands of Bulgarians. MIA: Not sent by Vivacom

It was received around 7 p.m.

An alarm message was received on the phones of thousands of Bulgarians. Around 7 p.m., a text appeared on the phone screens: “BG-ALERT: Attention, danger!” The Ministry of the Interior explained that in connection with the preparation of the “BG-ALERT” system, the contractor involved in the introduction of the system released a test message. “The message is not coordinated with the Ministry of the Interior and has no connection with a specific event,” they add in their press release.

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The former Minister of Electronic Government Bozhidar Bojanov also commented on the situation through his personal Facebook profile, where he wrote that “there is no danger”.

“It’s okay, there’s no danger, it’s just a test message. It is high time to have such a system which is very useful in disasters and it is very good that the Ministry of Interior is implementing it. MoI needs to improve the testing process (especially in a production environment). “test test” is not a good message”Bojanov wrote.

Vivacom sent their position to NOVA.

“Dear clients,

During tests of the automatic sending of messages from the BG-alert system to the Ministry of the Interior, which is currently being implemented, a system integrator sent a test message to Vivacom subscribers, of which we were not notified.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused and trust that the system contractor will take the necessary measures to avoid causing public confusion. We will continue to work with the institutions to implement the necessary notification system, insisting on better disclosure procedures.

The Vivacom team”