Gov't Report: Feds Spend Billions To Run Old Technology
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WASHINGTON (AP) - Congressional investigators say the government spends about three-fourths of its technology budget maintaining aging computer systems. That includes platforms more than 50 years old in such vital areas as nuclear weapons and Social Security. One still uses floppy disks.
The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office says the increasing cost of maintaining museum-ready equipment drains money that could go for modernization. The report will be released Wednesday.
GAO said it found problems across the government, not just in a few agencies.
One example is the Defense Department's Strategic Automated Command and Control System, used to send and receive emergency action messages to U.S. nuclear forces. The system is running on a 1970s IBM computing platform, and still uses 8-inch floppy disks to store data.
The Pentagon says an upgrade is underway.
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