At 8:07 a.m. local time, all cell phones alerted, “Emergency alert: ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii, seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill.”
This was obviously a huge failure of state government that added up to a big”oops!”
Maybe there really was a missile headed to Hawaii, maybe the real “screw-up” is it was one of ours and not one of theirs. Maybe this was a ridiculous and cruel test to see how people would react knowing their lives were about to be cut short by a stubby pork chop with a bad haircut. Whatever the case, you can always judge a calamity not by the act itself, but by the reaction.
Politicians, like politicians do, are trying to make political hay from it. But the question remains; “Exactly what DID happen?”
The National Intelligence Service says Pyongyang “has been implanting malicious codes by sending enticing text messages” from late February to early March 2017, adding that a fifth of those targeted were successfully hacked. The hackers stole text messages and voice communications, and they secured the numbers of senior government officials, it said.
The isolated U.S. military silo that contains one of deadliest nuclear arsenals in the world – some 450 warheads that are each 20 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima – is being controlled by computers dating back to 1960s and a launch system that relies on floppy disks.
But security officials maintain their methods are not only functional but hack-free, with the underground control room in Wyoming not connected to the internet, stopping any cyber terrorists gaining control over the weapons.
That brings up a couple of questions;
1) If it’s not connected to the internet is it connected to some other network. If not, how do they communicate between the computers and the higher command? Carrier pigeon maybe?
2) If you are old enough to remember the 1960’s computers that ran off 3.5″ floppy disks, you also remember how easily those disks could get corrupted and send the computer into a tizzy. Was this a good old-fashioned MS-DOS “blue screen” episode?
Maybe it was a hack from an unfriendly country. Maybe it was a glitch from old computer equipment. Or, maybe… just maybe the answer is exactly what is being reported… human error.
Because, when it comes right down to it, artificial intelligence will always be overcome by natural stupidity.
(c) 2018 TALES FROM THE DARK STATE