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BrikoX

San Francisco to pay $212 million to end reliance on 5.25-inch floppy disks (arstechnica.com)

submitted 4 days ago by BrikoX to c/technology

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Muni Metro also plans to ditch super-slow loop cable communication system.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

It took until 2019 for the US to give up the 8” floppies that ran its nuclear launch systems.

A 60 Minutes tour of the US nuclear control center in 2014 gave the public a glimpse behind the curtain of how the defense sector works. It also revealed that in the event that the US president ordered the launch of a nuclear warhead, the command would rely on 8-inch floppy disks and a 1970s era IBM Series/1 mainframe computer.

Rossi told C4isrnet that though the overall computer system is old, its age provides security.

"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," Rossi told the publication.

https://www.cnet.com/science/us-military-retires-floppy-disks-used-by-nuclear-weapons-system/