Sunday, October 27, 2019

Who Controls Our Nuclear Weapons ???

"Our" military intends to revamp the control systems for US nuclear missiles:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2019/10/19/us-military-to-replace-1970s-floppy-disks-controlling-nuclear-missiles/#2bb6af13d81b

At first glance this appears to be a good idea. After all, who still uses floppy disks?

But we should assess this "upgrade" in light of what it means for the security of those weapons. Who will be doing the upgrade ... and can they be trusted?

I bring this up because of what happened when the DOE upgraded its nuclear materials inventory system several years ago. Auditors noted that project security appeared lax, and they recommended the old system be operated in parallel with the new one until it could be proven the new one was accurate and reliable. The DOE refused to do such a thing. No explanation was given for the refusal, just fuck off.

Can we POSSIBLY be certain our nuclear missiles will not be hijacked after this upgrade? I doubt it. It's extremely likely someone will install a backdoor in the system, and then control of our nukes may belong to the Israelis, the Chinese, or even (OMG) the Russians.

What then?

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