Authenticating the Authenticators
This is an interesting read:
It was a question that changed his life, and changed mine, and may have changed — even saved — all of ours by calling attention to flaws in our nuclear command and control system at the height of the Cold War. It was a question that makes Maj. Hering an unsung hero of the nuclear age. A question that came from inside the system, a question that has no good answer: How can any missile crewman know that an order to twist his launch key in its slot and send a thermonuclear missile rocketing out of its siloa nuke capable of killing millions of civiliansis lawful, legitimate, and comes from a sane president?
Any chain of authentication ultimately rests on trust; there’s no way around it.
Matt Drew • March 25, 2011 12:33 PM
Here’s an even better question:
Would anyone who was sane ever order a nuclear attack?