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If it ain't broke...

The world seemed to be absolutely shocked to learn that the USA's nuclear weapons arsenal is still under the control of a decades-old computer system which uses 8-inch floppy disk drives.

I'm not shocked... I'm quietly reassured that we're as safe as we can be (given the dangers intrinsic to such a mass of thermonuclear warheads).

Even though reports indicate the cost of maintaining these aging computer systems at about US$60bn a year, I'd say that was money well spent (although I could do it for much less :-)

Why should we all be so happy that such archaic hardware and software is in charge of such a powerful and potentially lethal resource?

Well the answer is glaringly simple.

Back in the 1970s, when the IBM computer on which all this runs was built, computers were far too expensive and esoteric for there to be any real malware out there.

There was no internet to connect computers across the world and "script-kiddies" was a term yet to be invented.

This means that a 40-year-old computer system running on 8-inch floppies is probably the most secure bit of silicon you could have these days.

Odds are that even the most active and knowledgeable hacker would be left scratching their heads if faced with the task of gaining access to a system of this age -- although many of us who grew up with 8-inch floppies can remember lots of system-level hacking with raw bite-editors and recall that, compared to today's complex CPUs, it was really pretty simple stuff.

My biggest concern right now is that eventually, the US DOD will decide that it's time to "upgrade" these systems and fix that which is not broken. This is when the risk level will rise to possibly unacceptable levels.

Will they use MS Windows as the platform for this system?

I would certainly hope not -- but the US military has used Windows for mission-critical applications before, albeit with predictable results.

One can only imagine what would happen if the Ruskies launched a nuclear attack on the USA and the only response USDOD officials got when they pressed the "retaliate" button was a polite "Please wait, Windows update in progress... 23 minutes remaining"

No, I'd much rather they stuck with the old IBM systems because as they age, "security by obscurity" becomes an increasingly valuable trait of these dinosaurs.

What's more, no USB port means zero chance of an infected Flash drive being a vector for malware. One only has to recall the effects of the Stuxnet worm to realise how much of a risk such things can pose.

I really can't understand how the US can spend $60bn a year maintaining this stuff though. Hell, for that price they could scratch-build a whole bunch of new 1970s IBM computers and still have enough change left over for a mission to Mars.

Perhaps this really shows just how much the US defense contracting industry is gouging the US people. With that much clout and cash, it's easy to see how the US government gets pushed into ensuring that the country is always at war with someone or something.

Tragic!

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