Beyond BlackBerry: Outdated Tech The Feds Should Dump
The US Senate is finally ditching BlackBerry devices. Now, if only the rest of the government could leave the past behind. Here's a look at outdated tech still being used by federal agencies, including the military and the IRS.
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The US Senate has decided to stop offering staffers BlackBerry devices shortly before BlackBerry announced that it plans to stop manufacturing the BlackBerry Classic, known for its physical keyboard.
The news comes a few weeks after President Obama revealed that he had given up his beloved BlackBerry for an undisclosed new phone.
For the US government, technical euthanasia -- eupgrading? -- is rare. It's far more common to keep IT systems on life support for as long as possible. A Government Accounting Office report published in May found the US government spent about $61 billion of its approximately $80 billion 2015 IT budget on operations and maintenance of systems, some of which are more than 50 years old. That's 75% of the budget just keeping the lights -- or candles, given the age of some of these systems -- on.
The BlackBerry Classic was introduced in December 2014, though its distinctive keyboard has appeared in previous models, going back to the BlackBerry 850, a pager released in 1999. Even so, it's a relative newborn compared to some government systems.
Among the 10 oldest systems still being used, the youngest dates back 39 years. The two oldest, according to the agencies surveyed by the GAO, include elements that are 56-years-old, more or less.
The GAO concludes that many federal legacy IT investments have become obsolete because they rely on outdated software languages and hardware that are no longer supported by their original manufacturers.
[See Top Programming Languages That Will Future-Proof Your Portfolio.]
"Agencies reported using several systems that have components that are, in some cases, at least 50 years old," the report says. "For example, the Department of Defense uses 8-inch floppy disks in a legacy system that coordinates the operational functions of the nation's nuclear forces."
The GAO would have liked to include more pictures of these systems in its report, but several of the agencies involved urged otherwise, ostensibly for security reasons. Being able to see specific details about these systems might allow hackers to identify vulnerabilities in particular components. It also might provide an embarrassing visual reminder of institutional paralysis.
Security through obscurity runs counter to a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recommendation from 2008: "System security should not depend on the secrecy of the implementation or its components."
However, NIST also advises against configuring servers so that they reveal unnecessary information. While security through obscurity may be ill-advised in the context of IT vulnerabilities, where automated searching makes piercing the veil much easier, it's a common security practice nonetheless.
We may not be able to eliminate the tendency of government agencies to try to protect themselves by withholding information. But we can at least encourage them to upgrade sooner. Here are a few of federal agencies that could take a cue from the US Senate by ditching outdated tech.
Take a look and let us know what you think. Do you have anything to add to the list? Or do you wish you were still working with any of these old technologies?
The Strategic Automated Command Control System (SACCS) network is the primary system for communication between US military leaders and US nuclear forces. According to the GAO, the system presently depends on an IBM Series/1 "minicomputer" from the 1970s and 8" floppy disks to coordinate various operational functions. At least, the Department of Defense is planning updates by the end of 2017. Let's hope someone in IT remembers to cover the write-protect tab.
Federal agencies told the GOA that they have over 3,400 IT personnel employed to maintain code written in legacy programming languages like COBOL and Fortran. And this figure doesn't include the Department of Defense or the Department of Labor, neither of which could provide an estimate of the amount of old code they need to maintain.
The Department of Treasury's Individual Master File and Business Master File, the systems used to store data on individual and business taxpayers for the Internal Revenue Service, are written in assembly language and run on an IBM mainframe, according to the GAO. A modernization plan has not yet been disclosed. But given the breach of the IRS's Get Transcript application, introduced in 2014, maybe antique IT has its advantages.
Independent of the GAO report, the Library of Congress on Tuesday said goodbye to THOMAS, a system for accessing congressional information online that launched in 1995, the same year Yahoo incorporated. The role of THOMAS has been taken over by Congress.gov, which provides legislative information in open, machine-readable formats. Maybe there's a lesson here for Yahoo about the need to adapt.
The Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement Hiring Tracking Systems store data about current and past employees and contractors. According to the GAO, the systems run on a 2008 IBM z10 mainframe that relies on COBOL and other programming languages. The web interface uses Java running on a Windows 2012 server. Funding permitting, the agency plans to replace its mainframe with service oriented architecture, to facilitate the integration of new systems.
The National Data Buoy Center Ocean Observing System of Systems, operated by the NOAA National Weather Service, includes components that date back 46 years, according to the GAO. Providing support to various weather-related platforms, it relies on both Windows and Linux. Some of its systems, including Windows Server 2003 and a discontinued Oracle database, are no longer supported by the vendors that made them. Some of the code running on these systems includes Fortran. There's no specific plan for modernization, but the NWS plans to implement piecemeal upgrades.
The Department of Veterans Affairs' Benefits Delivery Network, at 51-years-old, tracks benefits claims filed by veterans, among other data. It is made up of various COBOL mainframe applications. The GAO says the agency has general plans to add capabilities to another system, but no firm transition plan has been presented. You're probably not surprised.
The Department of Defense's Computerized Movement and Planning Status System (COMPASS) tracks logistics data about the transportation of troops and equipment. It relies on Windows 2008 server, Java, and an Oracle 11g database from 2009. Parts of the system date back 52 years, according to the GAO. By the end of the year, the DoD is expected to move to Microsoft SQL Server 2012.
The Department of Defense's Computerized Movement and Planning Status System (COMPASS) tracks logistics data about the transportation of troops and equipment. It relies on Windows 2008 server, Java, and an Oracle 11g database from 2009. Parts of the system date back 52 years, according to the GAO. By the end of the year, the DoD is expected to move to Microsoft SQL Server 2012.
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