Pentagon scraps obsolete floppy disk
system controlling US nuclear arsenal
by
Jorge Fitz-Gibbon
Original Article
Posted By: LittleHoodedMonk,
10/20/2019 9:29:16 PM
America’s nuclear arsenal will no longer rely on floppy disks.
The Pentagon has finally scrapped a disco-era missile-launch system that relied on ancient IBM Series/1 computers and floppy disks — largely because young tech-savvy whippersnappers didn’t know how to maintain the prehistoric devices, according to a report. (Snip) The older system was in place since Gerald Ford was in the White House in the mid-1970s and relied on “a computer language initially used in the 1950s,” the GAO report said. SACCS is part of a communications network that coordinates nuclear bombers, support aircraft and Minuteman ICBM missiles in silos
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Omen55 10/20/2019 9:38:30 PM (No. 212983)
Should we feel safer now?
3 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Mekkkk 10/20/2019 9:47:44 PM (No. 212991)
I get it but the old system was for sure unhackable...
8 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
red1066 10/20/2019 9:58:20 PM (No. 212998)
Is the lighting in these facilities gas lamps? Maybe the military personnel arrive by horse and wagon. Really? How much money has the Pentagon been given over the last 40 years? Do we even know if the missiles work? However, maybe the incredibly old computer system is safer than the anything new. The young techs all over the world are scratching their heads because they can't hack it. Kind of like introducing a rotary telephone to anyone under ten years old.
8 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Ming 10/20/2019 10:11:53 PM (No. 213008)
Oh. Dear. God!
2 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
LC Chihuahua 10/20/2019 10:18:13 PM (No. 213014)
Guessing all the people that maintained it died of old age. Agree that it was unhackable though. Internet?!? What's that??? Bet it still won't be connected to the internet even after its modernized.
2 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
DVC 10/20/2019 10:42:29 PM (No. 213030)
FTA:
"But it’s the age that provides the security. You can’t hack something that doesn’t have an IP address.”
Damn straight. I worked on computers since before there were ANY removable memory devices other than computer cards, all the way up to the latest supercomputers in 2014. Nothing wrong with an old system if you can keep it running, and it is especially nice to have all the bugs worked out, and for the old system to completely fail to recongnize most fo the harmful commands that might be given to it.
I used a long obsolete e-mail system for decades specifically because it was completely proof of any sort of hacking via HTML commands (which are what is used to write and access web pages and web sites). Send all the HTML commands you want to that email system and they are like talking to an American security guard in Swahili, you aren't going to get anywhere. However, eventually, it would no longer interface with the email service provider, a real shame.
6 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
NorthernDog 10/20/2019 10:53:09 PM (No. 213042)
I wonder if the launch codes are published on a mimeogrpah machine (with the funky smelling ink).
5 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
Rumblehog 10/20/2019 11:50:22 PM (No. 213070)
Major airlines still depend on floppy disks for loading aircraft flight management system navigation databases every 28 days.
4 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
texaspast 10/21/2019 12:55:23 AM (No. 213097)
Hey, #8 - that mimeograph smell is the key to unlocking all my early school-hood memories! I can get why they use old floppy disk machines - unhackable. But why does every governmental agency (from the IRS to the VA) insist on using fax machines rather than sending a .pdf by email? I trashed my fax machine around 2005 because of all the spam faxes using up my paper and toner. Who has a fax machine anymore - except the feds?
1 person likes this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
A.I. 10/21/2019 1:14:25 AM (No. 213104)
How about vinyl LP record? It's immune to EMP.
1 person likes this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Highlander 10/21/2019 2:10:18 AM (No. 213116)
The Russians used vacuum tube electronics to avoid nuclear electromagnetic pulses in their grids. Something old isn’t always detrimental.
5 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Trigger2 10/21/2019 3:58:14 AM (No. 213138)
I'm not surprised. The goobermint is so busy handing out worthless grants and freebees that it doesn't have any pennies left over to upgrade the nation's most important security asset - our nuclear arsenal.
1 person likes this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
Strike3 10/21/2019 4:38:42 AM (No. 213157)
This is scary. Floppy disks that old would probably shred like paper.
1 person likes this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
chumley 10/21/2019 4:47:38 AM (No. 213162)
This may not end well. I was involved with the transition from mainframes in every Air Force squadron to windows based servers all connected together. Very hard to hack the mainframes because you had to be physically there. We did have a few 14.4 modems (and one 300!) but they required a deliberate action to work.
Now everything is connected to everything else and if you want to keep people out you have to invent software to do it, which is immediately hacked. We used to laugh at my boss because they found out his research was being viewed by soviets before the US saw it.
Don't make software. Cut the wire. Cant hack that.
3 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
JL80863 10/21/2019 6:29:25 AM (No. 213208)
Old does not mean "broke". Modernization is often a false indicator of progress.
1 person likes this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
DVC 10/21/2019 11:36:13 AM (No. 213502)
The glue adhering the magnetic particles to the floppy disks will eventually fail, and the data will be lost. Plus, I imagine that there have been no new disks manufactured for decades. Those are the old 8" floppies, which most folks are entirely unfamiliar with, since the first PCs started with the 5 1/4" floppies, so most never saw an 8" floppy. And the younger folks only saw the 3.5" hard cased floppies, if any at all.
0 people like this.
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Having worked in DC during the Watergate Eras at many governmental agencies installing and repairing state-of-the-art microfiche systems, I can attest to their computers then being obsolete much more than civilian sites. Even then, the workers seemed like drones, waiting for the five o'clock hour to rush out. Learning new things to them didn't mean more responsibility or achievement, but just added work taking away from their normal daily routines.