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US Nuclear Missile Silos Use Safe, Secure 8" Floppy Disks
Hugh Pickens DOT Com (2995471) writes "Sean Gallagher writes that the government built facilities for the Minuteman missiles in the 1960s and 1970s and although the missiles have been upgraded numerous times to make them safer and more reliable, the bases themselves haven't changed much and there isn't a lot of incentive to upgrade them. ICBM forces commander Maj. Gen. Jack Weinstein told Leslie Stahl from "60 Minutes" that the bases have extremely tight IT and cyber security, because they're not Internet-connected and they use such old hardware and software. "A few years ago we did a complete analysis of our entire network," says Weinstein. "Cyber engineers found out that the system is extremely safe and extremely secure in the way it's developed." While on the base, missileers showed Stahl the 8-inch floppy disks, marked "Top Secret," which is used with the computer that handles what was once called the Strategic Air Command Digital Network (SACDIN), a communication system that delivers launch commands to US missile forces. Later, in an interview with Weinstein, Stahl described the disk she was shown as "gigantic," and said she had never seen one that big. Weinstein explained, "Those older systems provide us some, I will say, huge safety, when it comes to some cyber issues that we currently have in the world.""
"I've never seen a floppy that big!"
"Wait til you see it spinning."
They say 8", but their wives privately shared that they were only 6" on a good day.
"Uh... phrasing."
Koans and fables for the software engineer
Just let the Whale Saving Islamic Rainbow Commies for Jesus try and put a virus in my punch card deck!
Security through Obscurity, if it works for m$ IE, it'll work for one of the largest nuclear stock piles.
This is the US military. There's a very good chance they have a six acre warehouse full of eight inch floppy disks that's fully climate controlled and guarded by snipers and dogs.
I have a TRS-80 Model 4p at home that has two built-in 8" drives.
This guy is one of the greatest threats to the US Minuteman missile system.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
I have a set of 8" Floppy drives that I can't give away! (DS-DD drives with a 1.2 MB capacity!) Post a reply if you want them (SE Wisconsin area)
USB or SATA hookup?
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Oh sure, you think we're that easy to fool? Trying to get us to use your 8" disks with hidden backdoors encoded in them? No thank you. We get all of our supplies from official channels, which source from the IBM division called Lenovo.
Maj. Gen. Jack Weinstein
Commander, U.S. Strategic Command
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
Where the bugs in the code are silverfish.
Steam turbine with wooden cogs would be my guess.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
" I would shutter any time I got a call from one of them"
Take a picture? Close your store?
It worked for Galactica.