Helvede

2 posts1 participant0 posts today

Brian Greenberg🧯 What Could Go Wrong? DOGE to Rapidly Rewrite SSA's COBOL CodebaseDOGE, a Musk-aligned “efficiency” department, plans to migrate the Social Security Administration’s COBOL-based systems to modern code like Java — in just a few months.💬 Experts are raising serious alarms:🔹 SSA systems serve 65M+ Americans and haven’t been overhauled since the 1980s. 🔹 COBOL is deeply embedded in core logic: SSNs, benefit payments, entitlements. 🔹 A proper migration should take years, not months. 🔹 The team pushing this effort reportedly includes inexperienced engineers who can’t read COBOL or navigate legacy mainframe architecture. 🔹 DOGE may use generative AI for code translation — without fully grasping edge cases or dependencies.SSA insiders describe the environment as a “house of cards” — where even minor changes can break everything.⚠️ Tech modernization must be grounded in humility, expertise, and realism — not political theater and wishful thinking.<a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/GovTech" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#GovTech</a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/SSA" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#SSA</a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/DigitalTransformation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#DigitalTransformation</a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/LegacySystems" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#LegacySystems</a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/COBOL" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#COBOL</a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/CyberSecurity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#CyberSecurity</a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/MainframeModernization" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#MainframeModernization</a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/PublicSectorIT" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#PublicSectorIT</a><a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/03/what-could-possibly-go-wrong-doge-to-rapidly-rebuild-social-security-codebase/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank">https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/03/what-could-possibly-go-wrong-doge-to-rapidly-rebuild-social-security-codebase/</a>

Brian Greenberg⚠️ DOGE’s Rushed Plan to Rebuild SSA Systems Will Be a Disaster - FFS 🤦🏻‍♂️ WIRED reports that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is pushing to rewrite the Social Security Administration’s COBOL-based systems in a matter of months — a job that experts agree should take years.🧠 What’s at stake:🔹 SSA supports 65+ million Americans — stability is non-negotiable. 🔹 COBOL runs the core logic for Social Security numbers, payments, and entitlements. 🔹 Even small changes could lead to silent system failures or missed benefits. 🔹 DOGE’s team — reportedly made up of young, inexperienced hires — lacks the skill to read COBOL or grasp mainframe architecture. 🔹 Without understanding the legacy code, there’s no safe path to rewriting it.This is not just a tech migration — it’s a potential house-of-cards collapse. Critical national infrastructure cannot be rewritten with duct tape and hubris. 🧯<a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/GovTech" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#GovTech</a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/SSA" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#SSA</a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/LegacySystems" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#LegacySystems</a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/COBOL" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#COBOL</a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/DigitalTransformation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#DigitalTransformation</a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/Mainframes" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Mainframes</a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/PublicSectorIT" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#PublicSectorIT</a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/software" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#software</a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/programming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#programming</a> <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/doge-rebuild-social-security-administration-cobol-benefits/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.wired.com/story/doge-rebuild-social-security-administration-cobol-benefits/</a>

Fake Scrum Stats Memes & Humor<a href="https://techhub.social/tags/scrum" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#scrum</a> <a href="https://techhub.social/tags/scrumteam" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#scrumteam</a> <a href="https://techhub.social/tags/dev" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#dev</a> <a href="https://techhub.social/tags/developer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#developer</a> <a href="https://techhub.social/tags/legacysystems" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#legacysystems</a> <a href="https://techhub.social/tags/productionissue" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#productionissue</a> <a href="https://techhub.social/tags/Meme" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Meme</a> <a href="https://techhub.social/tags/memes" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#memes</a> <a href="https://techhub.social/tags/Humor" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Humor</a>

PaulI've just blogged about some of the challenges I encounter when trying to keep old systems running beyond their end of life - usually on old versions of PHP but also having to support Windows 7, x86 etc.<a href="https://www.phpdeveloper.org.uk/the-challenges-of-keeping-old-systems-running/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.phpdeveloper.org.uk/the-challenges-of-keeping-old-systems-running/</a><a href="https://fosstodon.org/tags/Freelance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Freelance</a> <a href="https://fosstodon.org/tags/business" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#business</a> <a href="https://fosstodon.org/tags/LegacySystems" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#LegacySystems</a> <a href="https://fosstodon.org/tags/LegacyCode" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#LegacyCode</a>

Fake Scrum Stats Memes & Humor<a href="https://techhub.social/tags/scrum" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#scrum</a> <a href="https://techhub.social/tags/dev" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#dev</a> <a href="https://techhub.social/tags/developer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#developer</a> <a href="https://techhub.social/tags/scrumteam" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#scrumteam</a> <a href="https://techhub.social/tags/LegacyCode" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#LegacyCode</a> <a href="https://techhub.social/tags/legacysystems" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#legacysystems</a> <a href="https://techhub.social/tags/spaghetticode" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#spaghetticode</a> <a href="https://techhub.social/tags/codedocumentation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#codedocumentation</a> <a href="https://techhub.social/tags/memes" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#memes</a> <a href="https://techhub.social/tags/Meme" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Meme</a> <a href="https://techhub.social/tags/Humor" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Humor</a>

Fake Scrum Stats Memes & Humor<a href="https://techhub.social/tags/scrum" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#scrum</a> <a href="https://techhub.social/tags/LegacyCode" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#LegacyCode</a> <a href="https://techhub.social/tags/legacysystems" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#legacysystems</a> <a href="https://techhub.social/tags/dev" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#dev</a> <a href="https://techhub.social/tags/developer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#developer</a> <a href="https://techhub.social/tags/scrumteam" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#scrumteam</a> <a href="https://techhub.social/tags/qa" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#qa</a> <a href="https://techhub.social/tags/Meme" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Meme</a> <a href="https://techhub.social/tags/memes" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#memes</a> <a href="https://techhub.social/tags/Humor" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Humor</a>

Recent searches

Search options

Administered by:

Server stats:

#legacysystems