US nuclear arsenal controlled by 1970s computers with 8in floppy disks

[longknife]

If this doesn't scare you, nothing will. Billions for airplanes that can't fly. Thousands for toilet seats. No military pay raises.

Given that magnetic media has a finite shelf life, and that disks and the drives needed to read and write to them are older than some of the operators of the machinery, the floppy revelation makes you wonder whether the US could even launch a nuclear attack if required. An “error, data corrupted” message could be literally life or death.

Hell, a $300 laptop has more computing power than they antiquities. Story @ US nuclear arsenal controlled by 1970s computers with 8in floppy disks

 

[Asclepias]

Trust me. Any no critical data is stored on floppy media and is backed up for redundancy.

 

[Pogo]

If this doesn't scare you, nothing will. Billions for airplanes that can't fly. Thousands for toilet seats. No military pay raises.

Given that magnetic media has a finite shelf life, and that disks and the drives needed to read and write to them are older than some of the operators of the machinery, the floppy revelation makes you wonder whether the US could even launch a nuclear attack if required. An “error, data corrupted” message could be literally life or death.

Hell, a $300 laptop has more computing power than they antiquities. Story @ US nuclear arsenal controlled by 1970s computers with 8in floppy disks

So we're working on a Windblows-free platform?

Makes sense to me.

 

[TNHarley]

Would this technology be vulnerable to hacking?

 

[Asclepias]

Would this technology be vulnerable to hacking?

Everything is vulnerable to hacking.