IP: MSFT and our nuclear arsenal

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2001 19:40:36 -0400
> Subject: MSFT and our nuclear arsenal
> From: Kai Lui <kai () kailui com>
> To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
>
> An interesting piece from the Washington Post if you haven't already seen
> it. Unfortunately (or fortunately), the specific MSFT software is not
> identified.
>
> Kai Lui
> ------------------
>
> Nukes: A Lesson From Russia
> By Bruce G. Blair
> Wednesday, July 11, 2001; Page A19
>
> Although the United States spends nearly $1 billion every year to help
> Russia protect its vast storehouse of nuclear weapons materials from theft
> or sale on the black market, few Americans know how this aid helps
> strengthen America's own nuclear safeguards.
>
> Russian experts at the Kurchatov Institute, the renowned nuclear research
> center in Moscow, recently found what appears to be a critical deficiency in
> the internal U.S. system for keeping track of all bomb-grade nuclear
> materials held by the Energy Department -- enough material for tens of
> thousands of nuclear bombs.
>
> Kurchatov scientists discovered a fatal flaw in the Microsoft software
> donated to them by the Los Alamos National Laboratory. This same software
> has been the backbone of America's nuclear materials control system for
> years. The Russians found that over time, as the computer program is used,
> some files become invisible and inaccessible to the nuclear accountants
> using the system, even though the data still exist in netherworld of the
> database. Any insider who understood the software could exploit this flaw by
> tracking the "disappeared" files and then physically diverting, for a
> profit, the materials themselves.
>
> Full article at:
>
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44053-2001Jul10.html



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