Technology

Inside a janitors closet, behind 24 firewalls, is a single SPARCStation serving the internal financial information for GE.

A single chair is in the converted closet for Hank to sit when they (it could be one person, or three working in shifts, no one is really sure. But they respond to "Hank") aren't putting out the most recent fire. The pile of used extinguishers are replaced daily. Hank likes his job. Hank doesn't like you. If you're lucky enough and get access through the 7 biometrically locked doors to exchange the extinguishers, it's been said you can hear mumblings from inside the closet about "uptime".

On September 30th, 2018, John Flannery, the CEO at the time, asked why this was all necessary and considered replacing this system with something more modern.

"I joke with people and say it's the Air Force's oldest IT system. But it's the age that provides that security,” Rossi said in an October interview. "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 2016, the Government Accountability Office wrote that SACCS runs on an IBM Series/1 computer dating from the 1970s and that the Defense Department planned “to update its data storage solutions, port expansion processors, portable terminals and desktop terminals by the end of fiscal year 2017,” but it’s unclear whether those upgrades have occurred.

https://www.c4isrnet.com/air/2019/10/17/the-us-nuclear-forces-dr-strangelove-era-messaging-system-finally-got-rid-of-its-floppy-disks/

Like, names of presidents? Dude.