The US nuclear forces’ messaging system finally got rid of its floppy disks
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Re: The US nuclear forces’ messaging system finally got rid of its floppy disks
#2I was kind of hoping they were replacing the floppy disks with CDs or something else equally old school and hard to hack.
Re: The US nuclear forces’ messaging system finally got rid of its floppy disks
#3But no more. At long last, that system, the Strategic Automated Command and Control System or SACCS, has dumped the floppy disk, moving to a “highly-secure solid state digital storage solution”
Did SuperMicro make the board?
Re: The US nuclear forces’ messaging system finally got rid of its floppy disks
#4I don't know what the right solution is but I recently watched this documentary about a serious accident at a missile silo in Arkansas
https://www.pbs.org/video/american-experience-command-and-co...
Re: The US nuclear forces’ messaging system finally got rid of its floppy disks
#5Long term reliability metrics can only be gathered for technologies that have already been deployed in the long term. That’s why many mission critical applications like this one use “obsolete” technologies.
Re: The US nuclear forces’ messaging system finally got rid of its floppy disks
#6I was kind of hoping they were replacing the floppy disks with CDs or something else equally old school and hard to hack.
Most likely that would be what they use due to its security. It's what most of the air force has transitioned to for backups and transferring data in classified and unclassified environments alike.
Re: The US nuclear forces’ messaging system finally got rid of its floppy disks
#7I was kind of hoping they were replacing the floppy disks with CDs or something else equally old school and hard to hack.
Most likely that would be what they use due to its security. It's what most of the air force has transitioned to for backups and transferring data in classified and unclassified environments alike.
They explicitly said solid state. I suspect they are trying to future-proof their tech stack somewhat to ensure reliable sourcing.
Re: The US nuclear forces’ messaging system finally got rid of its floppy disks
#8Long term reliability metrics can only be gathered for technologies that have already been deployed in the long term. That’s why many mission critical applications like this one use “obsolete” technologies.
Well may be it would be a good reason, but do we have an evidence that it was intentional?
Re: The US nuclear forces’ messaging system finally got rid of its floppy disks
#9I was kind of hoping they were replacing the floppy disks with CDs or something else equally old school and hard to hack.
As far as I know, we don't even know the length of time CDs will last because they haven't been around long enough. I would love someone to correct me if I'm wrong.
Re: The US nuclear forces’ messaging system finally got rid of its floppy disks
#10> While SACC’s hardware is decades old, its software is constantly refreshed by young Air Force programmers who learn software development skills at Offutt’s Rapid Agile Development Lab.
I am not so sure I want “Rapid Agile” development for something that literally controls nuclear missiles.