[ashleyn]

I don't really know the precise technical details, but owing to how these stations serve as entry points for other stations, I would surmise all one would have to do is impersonate the original station and hundreds of other broadcasters would immediately begin relaying an alert in a mesh configuration. There is no authentication on this process (or at least there wasn't in the initial days of EAS before CAP/IPAWS), and any rogue ham or Russian spy could do it.