Why don't we just redesign the system with good UX? I want to send a copy of "The Design of Everyday Things" to the Hawaiian government now.
Sure the buttons could have been named something different, but with a confirmation box, this UX passes what should be considered reasonable to prevent a literate and aware individual (the only type that should be approved for this position) from making a mistake like this.
I'm really astonished at the need to defend my position on this... it's almost like everyone replying here is thinking that they, too, would treat a legitimate missile defense drill (in the era of saber-rattling between Trump and Kim) the same way they treat installing a software EULA or an update to their FB ToS.
Occasionally I reflexively click-through a confirmation dialogue box and regret it. I feel like I've been trained by the software industry for decades to bludgeon my way through these confirmations, many of which are unnecessary to begin with. I basically have muscle memory for it, the skids are greased for clicking-through. I know I'm not the only one.
So, I could see myself making this type of slip. It's really hard to know the balance between human and system error for this incident, but to me it looks like the system naively assumes a perfect human. Even if the incident turns out to have been an intentionally malicious act, the problem with the system would still remain.
One way to do this is to let the operator do a simple task that can't be clicked through.