Security ... think about it!
The Virginia Tech failure occurred when a warning about possible gunfire in November did not reach students and staff. Although the emergency was determined to be a false alarm — the sound attributed to a nail gun — the failure was of considerable concern to university officials at that time. “We created the industry that [Everbridge] is in based on the tragedy of April 16, 2007,” he said. Hincker said Virginia Tech was the first in the nation to develop such an expansive emergency notification system, and the failure of the Everbridge system was because the school was “using the system outside of the bounds of what [Everbridge] had designed.” During successful tests, getting the word out about an emergency takes about 25 to 30 minutes, he said. The failure “caused us some heartburn last year,” he added.
