U.S. Has Made 'Dramatic Change' in Technology Used for Nuclear Code System

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https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-has-made-dramatic-change-in-technology-used-for-nuclear-code-system-11665758981
https://archive.ph/G65LJ

U.S. Has Made ‘Dramatic Change’ in Technology Used for Nuclear Code System
Revamped spy museum gives public access to one of nation’s most secretive subjects
By Daniella Cheslow
Updated Oct. 14, 2022 12:36 pm ET

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The National Cryptologic Museum located outside Washington, D.C. is now home to several pieces of equipment that were in operation until just a few years ago to generate the codes the president could use to authorize the launch of nuclear weapons. The placement of the retired equipment in the National Security Agency’s museum reveals an upgrade to the classified system that is rarely talked about by government officials.

“We had the opportunity, during this time where we were down for Covid, when the entire country’s nuclear code system went through a dramatic change in our technology,” said museum director Vince Houghton. “And so we have on display the servers and machines that created the nuclear codes for the United States from the 1980s all the way through a couple years ago.”

The new exhibit “suggests to me that there’s been some dramatic improvements in the capability in what we have today, that nothing’s going to be compromised by showing you something that was used all the way through 2019,” said Larry Pfeiffer, director of the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security at George Mason University.

On display are several pieces of equipment involved in the code generation, including a computer server called the DEC Alpha that generated secret keys a president would use to initiate a nuclear attack, and the MP37 machine that manufactured the physical Sealed Authenticator System cards with nuclear launch codes used to verify orders from Strategic Command to local commanders of nuclear weapons.

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