Origanalist
10-19-2019, 08:26 AM
Oftentimes in the military, the adage “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” becomes hard to argue. And in a world where threat actors from enemy nation states probe for any and every weakness, replacing a system that has been glitch and breach free for decades is a tough ask. So it is with the U.S. military’s decision to shift its Strategic Automated Command and Control System (SACCS) from 1970s tech to something more contemporary. As reported by defense news site C4isrnet, the highly secure U.S. military messaging services has finally “dumped the floppy disk.”
The SACCS messaging system has been used with the Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) system, the land-based nuclear option operated by the U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command. It is a network of hidden underground missile silos connected by endless secure cabling. All of which has been controlled by a 1970s computer system and those disks. “This is how we would conduct nuclear war,” one senior USAF operator explains, “on eight-inch floppy disks.”
https://youtu.be/Y8OOp5_G-R4
It has not been an easy decision. As Lt. Col. Jason Rossi, who commands the Air Force’s 595th Strategic Communications Squadron and oversees the system explained, “you can't hack something that doesn't have an IP address. It's a very unique system—it is old and it is very good." In the era of default connectivity, you can see the point. And while the military relies on gapped networks, there is no better security than something tried and tested, that cannot be networked or electronically compromised.
There is also a fundamental difference between the mechanical tech of the 1970s and the black-boxed components of today—the entire skillset and concept of operations of the unit will change. Ageing legacy systems develop an ecosystem of mechanics and operators that maintain uptime through experience. But that’s not how modern tech works. “I have guys in here who have circuits, diodes, and resisters memorized,” Rossi explained. “These guys have been doing it for so long, when the parts come in, they can tell you what’s wrong just based on a fault code or something. That level of expertise is very hard to replace. It’s not sexy work. It’s soldering irons and micro-miniature microscopes.”
And that’s part of the problem. The new cadre of military engineers “are young and less-experienced—many come from the ‘cyber transport’ career field, meaning that they are trained to manage modern IT infrastructure, not antiquated systems like SACCS that require maintainers to learn skills like how to solder metal.”
continued..https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2019/10/19/us-military-to-replace-1970s-floppy-disks-controlling-nuclear-missiles/#6ed6ca99d81b
The SACCS messaging system has been used with the Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) system, the land-based nuclear option operated by the U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command. It is a network of hidden underground missile silos connected by endless secure cabling. All of which has been controlled by a 1970s computer system and those disks. “This is how we would conduct nuclear war,” one senior USAF operator explains, “on eight-inch floppy disks.”
https://youtu.be/Y8OOp5_G-R4
It has not been an easy decision. As Lt. Col. Jason Rossi, who commands the Air Force’s 595th Strategic Communications Squadron and oversees the system explained, “you can't hack something that doesn't have an IP address. It's a very unique system—it is old and it is very good." In the era of default connectivity, you can see the point. And while the military relies on gapped networks, there is no better security than something tried and tested, that cannot be networked or electronically compromised.
There is also a fundamental difference between the mechanical tech of the 1970s and the black-boxed components of today—the entire skillset and concept of operations of the unit will change. Ageing legacy systems develop an ecosystem of mechanics and operators that maintain uptime through experience. But that’s not how modern tech works. “I have guys in here who have circuits, diodes, and resisters memorized,” Rossi explained. “These guys have been doing it for so long, when the parts come in, they can tell you what’s wrong just based on a fault code or something. That level of expertise is very hard to replace. It’s not sexy work. It’s soldering irons and micro-miniature microscopes.”
And that’s part of the problem. The new cadre of military engineers “are young and less-experienced—many come from the ‘cyber transport’ career field, meaning that they are trained to manage modern IT infrastructure, not antiquated systems like SACCS that require maintainers to learn skills like how to solder metal.”
continued..https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2019/10/19/us-military-to-replace-1970s-floppy-disks-controlling-nuclear-missiles/#6ed6ca99d81b