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US Nuclear Missile Silos Use 8" Floppy Disks

posted by Woods on Tuesday April 29 2014, @02:30PM   Printer-friendly
from the still-better-than-laserdisc dept.

Papas Fritas writes:

Ars Technica reports that the US 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 are 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."

 
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  • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday April 29 2014, @03:51PM

    by kaszz (4211) on Tuesday April 29 2014, @03:51PM (#37715) Journal

    I think we found how to source 8" floppies ..! ;-)

    Perhaps they have some 5.25" and 3.5" too. Because they ought to buy them new somewhere?

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  • (Score: 1) by jackb_guppy on Tuesday April 29 2014, @04:50PM

    by jackb_guppy (3560) on Tuesday April 29 2014, @04:50PM (#37738)

    I know 8 were still made throughout 1996. We used them withOBM S/36. S/36 came with either 8 or 5 1/4 both were 1,2 meg sector for sector match. So mount an 8 on at least a PC-at to opt from big to small or vid-a-verse.

  • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Tuesday April 29 2014, @05:13PM

    by mhajicek (51) on Tuesday April 29 2014, @05:13PM (#37749)

    No, they just keep extending the disks tour of duty.

    --
    The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek

    • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday April 29 2014, @09:43PM

      by kaszz (4211) on Tuesday April 29 2014, @09:43PM (#37874) Journal

      Bitrot will be their stalker ;-)