[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

One problem with the PROMIS scenario is the allegation that this 1986-vintage software has somehow kept pace with American technological advancements-- an obvious prerequisite if it is to be a threat in any way that benefits bad guys like Saddam.

Think about it: for starters, in the years in which it was formulated and for much of a decade afterwards, there was no public Internet. Now, how valuable would "tracking" software be if it had no knowledge of this fundamental latter-day communications medium? Or ethernet or LANs or client-server architectures or firewalls or routers or RAID arrays or NAT or ISPs or all the other paraphernalia of computerdom that has emerged in recent years and which it would have to grasp and penetrate to be of value to the bad guys. Or email or web pages or ftp sites or instant messengers or any of the other tools that have been built to facilitate the movement of data, commerce and people. Or... well, you get the picture. Just take a quick look around your desk, den or family room: they're stuffed--stuffed!--with gizmos that would seem like sheerest black magic to the programmers of PROMIS.

So this antique, unsupported software is supposed to be a threat through some "back door" that somehow lets its bad-guy users peek at the good-guys' knowledgebase and movements?

And what of the hardware it is supposed to run on? Anyone try running a copy of Wordstar on their PC lately? It plain won't run--you'll be lucky to escape the attempt without a reboot--and even if you could get it running through some miracle of reconfiguration, it probably wouldn't work with printers sold in the last ten years. And while I haven't researched it, presumably PROMIS is minicomputer--not PC--software, running on something like a DEC PDP-11 or VAX. Try to buy a mini nowadays, or get an old one supported. Or even find the 8" floppy disks, Hollerith cards or hulking Winchester disk-packs used as media for such beasts. The last refurb house for big disk-packs that I'm aware of went out of business over a year ago. Its last customer was the U.S. Government and its creaking air-traffic-control system... I'm sure any other customer for such equipment would have raised much curiosity, especially if it involved support for systems in Kabul or Baghdad.

So this whole tale depends on the wild notion of Saddam et fils taking clandestine possession of a piece of antediluvian software with no connectivity, no support of recent hardware, no compatibility with recent operating systems or network architectures, probably no graphics and with an obscure text-oriented user interface, running on obsolete computers whose makers stopped supporting them years ago and may no longer be in existence.

It's a fascinating story, but more fascinating is the credulity of those who perpetuate it as a scandal without questioning these obvious technical potholes.

Saddam and bin Laden huddling in a bunker using PROMIS in hopes of hacking into our intelligence and financial nets? We should be so lucky. The frustration would kill 'em faster than we could.

[steve8714]

Don't forget the Gov always pays twice commercial price for computers that are already antiquated when purchased. This PROMIS may be run on mainframes accessed by dunb terminals.

[DB]

It's magic!

Magic software that runs on magic VAX machines...

VAX machines that had as much horsepower as a modern cell phone (without the communications capabilities)...

Saddam and Osama must shop at eBay to keep their super powerful VAX machines up and running so they can spy...

Just think, if it was fully equipped with the most expensive modem available at the time (several thousands dollars) it can communicate at 9600 baud over a conditioned telephone line... Maybe they can connect to some lost and forgotten bulletin board in a Russian basement…

[HenryLeeII]

The age factor was the first thing I thought of also; I'm glad I'm not alone on this point. Also, if there was dirt on Ed Meese and other Reagan officials, wouldn't Comrade Xlinton and his lap dog Reno be all over it? Heck, they may have even halted their persecution of Bill Gates and the legal tobacco industry long enough to go after them...

[tang-soo]

From what I understand ,PROMIS was supported and distributed by Systamatics of Little Rock throught the 1990's. THis was/is a large company that supports banking software world-wide. Plenty of resources to modify and keep up with modern technology. Systematics was owned by Jackson Stephens and his brother (sorry forgot his name). These guys were reputed to be Clinton's sugar daddy (oddly, they also heavily supported Dole in 1996). Systematics is now owned by Alltel. Vince Foster was reported to be involved in the legal/financial matters concerning the PROMIS distribution. Other names that pop up in the PROMIS story include Danny Casalaro (dead), Michael Riconosciuto, the security comapny Wackenhut Wackenhut, Jim Keith (dead), BCCI ...