Wow, I mean, wow!
It was deemed more important that soldiers could launch nukes if there was a breakdown in communication than 4 people could launch without permission.
brian
Well, did you know that before you read the article?
I’d be willing to bet anyone with improper access and ill-will would never have figured it out. Hiding in plain sight and all that. Besides, it’s an easy secret to remember when time is tight and communications are spotty.
Not like you or I would have guessed that.
About a year ago I had to demonstrate a scripting tool to my then boss and pulled up a script with my password in it. She gasped and said “THAT is your password? It’s not very secure!” I said “Would you have guessed that?”
“No”.
“Then it was secure.”
Well, after you entered the code, you had to add the spoken parameter “Peekaboo.”
(Would you have guessed?)
00000000? That’s amazing! I’ve got the same combination on my luggage!
Have any been shot off because of that yet?
Perhaps they’re pretty secure no matter what the launch codes are.
Shows what you know! MY luggage is as safe as houses because nobody could ever crack my code: 12345.
/smug
Well at least no one died from that. Not exactly the same thing, but some GPS guided bombs allow you to enter GPS coordinates using your current location as a starting point. After changing the battery - it defaults again to your current location. As you can probably guess - someone entered a location - and then changed the battery - launched it - killing three friendlies and injuring 20.
on rereading - I think it is actually an external device a soldier was using to determine the GPS location - and not the bomb itself. My bad.
Since I set my password to zero zeroes, even I can’t get in!
So you’re one of those with the mythical suitcase nuke!
When I saw this thread I had just a glimmer of hope I’d be able to make this joke, but no. Anyway the more I read stories like this - and there’s a whole book about them called Command and Control, which I haven’t gotten around to reading - the more I think the main reason humanity survived the Cold War is plain old dumb-ass luck.
I’d heard about the nuclear missile codes before but not this incident, wow, what an unfortunate way to go.
I take it thats the book? Its still a bit expensive but as soon as it comes down in price into my Cold War book collection it goes.
I know what you mean re your last line, makes you wonder if the ‘multiple-worlds’ theory of reality is right and our world is one of the few that didn’t nuke itself into a glowing radioactive cinder at some point.
Just finished reading ‘Swan Song’ by Robert McCammon which depicts a full scale exchange in the late 1980’s, I question the authors technical accuracy (he makes the mistake of counting from 1 to 5 in the Defcon alert system and not the other way around for example) but he can really craft an image.
If Liquid Snake had known this, it would’ve ruined pretty much the entire second disc of Metal Gear Solid 1.
well, lets see - according to all the documentary evidence I’ve seen - password/code crackers always start with all 1s and progress from there - with a 9 digit code, it should take them a few years before it finally scrolls to all zeros at the end.
Generally, there will be 5 seconds left on the clock when this does happen.
Heck, what do you do when someone accidentally sets something down on the panel, and it’s leaning on the 0 key? I know I’ve accidentally typed things that way.
I think they must have installed RikerProtection 1.0 for that.
Simmer down people. The article got it wrong. It’s not a string of zeros but a combination of zeros and the letter “O”. Please feel secure.
I thought it was always 7.
Yes. I haven’t read it, but I read a long review and discussion of some of the issues in a New Yorker a month or two ago.