The Biggest Threats to Government Security – 1

A friend read a story claiming the U.S. nuclear system still used archaic 8 inch floppy disks.  He didn’t want to get suckered into believing an urban legend and asked, “Can we actually take an article like this seriously?”

Unfortunately, it’s correct.  Sounds like an urban legend, doesn’t it?  CNN and NPR vouch for its truth.  Our nuclear weapons system uses 8″ floppy disks— a technology that had almost vanished before I started my career but that could easily still be in use after I retire.

This is normal for government.

• The Space Shuttle program used 386 computers to run the cockpit.
• The Secret Service uses a failing 1980’s era mainframe.
• U.S. Navy ship radar systems use 1970’s DEC PDPs.

OK, this is normal (and amusing), but is it bad?  Yes, because this is very old hardware, the parts are often only available on eBay, and to try keep these systems at high reliability we have to spend a lot of money and time.

There are many reasons why the government spends so much to get so little.

• • Single year budgets provide an agency little ability to save for big projects.
  • “Use it or lose it” government budgeting punishes severely any attempt to save.
  • The government is famous for changing requirements so many times that they burn up the budget and wind up with nothing useful.
  • There is an excellent level of testing done with critical systems, such that no one is willing to move to a new system.
  • The government isn’t short on money, it’s short on the right color of money.  In other words, maintenance funds can only be spent on maintenance, never on buying new, better, cheaper, more cost effective stuff.  While a business would usually add up the high cost of maintaining, training, & using archaic hardware then throw the money into replacing it, the government CAN’T.
  • The best way to get promoted in government is to squeak by, hiding problems, claiming success, and have any disasters occur on the next guy’s watch.  I have friends in government and they do a harder, better thing, by insisting on real progress.  Unfortunately many people succumb to temptation and go the easy way.

Oddly, the archaic hardware helps with one kind of security problem–fewer hackers are working on finding security problems with systems their grandmothers used.  That’s not the only kind of security though, and an increasing likelihood of total system failure is a huge risk to security.

We’ve only just begun, really, so come back for more problems and some choices.