From: Government Technology
Cybersecurity risks and antiquated technology are front and center at the Legislature this spring, where lawmakers are considering whether to spend more than $100 million to bring the state’s software into the current decade.
(TNS) — Many of the state of Minnesota’s data centers are vulnerable to both intruders and water damage. The state’s crack cybersecurity team doesn’t have a night shift. And the only people who know how to maintain code handling billions of dollars in state transactions are near retirement — or long past it.
“Things haven’t changed that much,” said Mike Arlett, a retired 79-year-old programmer who still comes into work periodically because he’s one of the few people left who can update the venerable COBOL code he’s worked on for decades. “It’s basically the same as it was many, many years ago. It’s just running on a bigger, faster platform.”
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