Does your Windows PC come with an integrated nuclear missile launching feature? You are probably running Microsoft Windows XP.
According to a recent reportage by UK newspaper The Guardian, most nuclear deterrent systems operated by the US, Russia, UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea, are run using a variant, or several thereof, of Microsoft Windows XP as the operating system, and even older systems.
This comes with particular reference to the British Royal Navy, which is touted as “safe and secure”, by the UK’s Ministry of Defence, in spite of the fact that the primary operating system governing the British Vanguard-class submarines designated to carry the UK’s nuclear payload, is none other than “Windows for Submarines”, a version of Windows XP, which is just as vulnerable to malware, as the off-the-shelf version.
As incredible as it may seem, the British Ministry of Defence went on the record saying that the grossly outdated Trident system, is “safe”, as submarines work in isolation by design, which contributes to their “cyber-resilience”. That is until the firmware needs to be updated, which makes what happens next, anyone’s guess.
Considering a total worldwide payload count of 16,300 warheads, as of 2014, the reliance on an outdated operating system becomes an overwhelming concern.
Russia and the United States still retain over 93% of all operational nuclear warheads, and so far, only the US has plans on updating its military IT infrastructure to Windows 10, for now starting with the Marine Corps, and hopefully progressing towards securing more systems.
Until the US completes the upgrade, there is no guarantee that the outdated systems will function within acceptable parameters, with no amount of “isolation” making any difference whatsoever, especially as firmware still comes from an external source liable to be tampered with.
Microsoft has stopped providing updates and security patches for Windows XP in 2014, and has issued statements in regard to the operating system no longer being safe for use, and very easy to exploit, compared to newer operating systems, including Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10.