How did the governments technology get so bad?
The Social Security Administration was one of the first groups in government to adopt a big-data approach to operations.
Once an international leader in cutting-edge technology, the administration was “pushing the edge,” said the agency’s chief information officer, Robert Klopp. “IBM was scrambling to make systems big enough to solve the complex problems we’d pose.”
Forty years later, times have changed, and much of the core software running the Social Security Administration is pushing a different kind of edge.
Despite decades of improvements to commercial technology that have made it more secure, efficient and cost-effective, the administration uses a core system that is more than 30 years old.
It contains 60 million lines of code written in COBOL, a programming language invented during the Eisenhower administration that is not even taught in modern computer science programs.
It also contains more than 10 million lines of code written in assembly — one step above programming in binary.
The systems are so obsolete, the agency might be running out of time to upgrade them.
“In five years, over 30 percent of the people who understand the system will be eligible to retire. If we want to upgrade, this is the last chance to do it while people who know the legacy system will be around to help,” he said.
http://thehill.com/policy/technology/310271-how-did-the-governments-technology-get-so-bad
On the other hand, very few hackers know how to break into systems that old.
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