© Mark Ollig
On Oct. 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched its R-7 Semyorka intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) containing Sputnik 1, the first earth-orbiting artificial satellite.
Sputnik 1 caused anxiety among many people worried that the next Soviet ICBM launched over the US might drop a nuclear warhead instead of a harmless beeping satellite.
It was the late 1950s. The Cold War was at its height, and the Soviet Union had taken a commanding lead in this new “Space Race.”
With growing fears of the possible destruction of the US military’s core computer system during a nuclear attack, the US Department of Defense set out to redesign the US military computer communications network.
Feb. 7, 1958, the US Department of Defense Directive 5105.15 officially began the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA).
This directive initiated a new and highly classified data communications network designed to provide fail-safe remote access to the US military computer system.
To safeguard US military computers’ accessibility during a nuclear attack, ARPA designed a survivable computer communications network named ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network).
By October 1969, the ARPANET network used data-packet-switching protocol transmissions over dedicated long-distance telephone lines for sharing resources from geographically separated computers across the country.
This specialized communications network would provide multiple redundant connection paths from military computers to the remotely located teletype data terminals used by military personnel.
ARPANET was instrumental in laying the groundwork for the “network of networks,” better known today as the internet.
Eventually, ARPANET connected the US Defense Department with its military computers in the US and Europe.
In 1983, the military’s non-classified information moved from ARPANET to a network called MILnet (Military Network).
MILnet later became NIPRNET (Non-classified Internet Protocol Router Network) during the 1990s. At the same time, the secret classified information network used by the Department of Defense moved to SIPRNet (Secret Internet Protocol Router Network).
In 1983, a person using their home computer equipped with a dial-up modem and a communications software program accessed another computer by dialing its modem’s telephone number and entering the correct password.
“WarGames” is a 1983 movie about a teenage computer whiz and hacker named David Lightman, who uses his computer and its dial-up modem to call random telephone numbers and track the numbers answering with computer modem “handshaking” protocols.
Lightman is attempting to find the classified telephone number for a specific company’s game computer he wants to play on.
One telephone number Lightman’s computer dials into is the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) top-secret, artificially intelligent computer called WOPR (War Operation Plan Response).
WOPR plays out multiple nuclear attack war game scenarios between the US and the Soviet Union.
Lightman, however, believes WOPR is a gaming computer.
He obtains its secret “backdoor password,” and begins playing WOPR in a war game called Global Thermonuclear War.
Lightman takes the side of the Soviet Union and activates its nuclear forces (not really), while WOPR obtains total control (yes, really) of the US land-based nuclear missiles.
As the game progresses, WOPR prepares a counter-attack against the Soviet Union using real nuclear weapons.
WOPR begins a countdown to launch.
NORAD officials see a “Launch Detection” message (activated by WOPR) on their large, global monitor and believe the Soviet Union is launching nuclear weapons.
NORAD then goes to DEFCON 1 (DEFense readiness CONdition).
Meanwhile, WOPR has armed the US nuclear missiles and is minutes away from obtaining the classified launch code needed to send the missiles in a retaliatory strike.
Going back earlier in the movie, Lightman learned WOPR was playing the game for real but can’t convince the computer to stop playing.
He locates and convinces Professor Stephen Falken, the scientist who programmed the software for WOPR, to come to NORAD and try to stop the launch.
Falken and Lightman get WOPR to play itself in numerous games of Tic-Tac-Toe, which always end in a tie and is therefore unwinnable.
By playing Tic-Tac-Toe, WOPR learns the global thermonuclear war game is also unwinnable.
Just as WOPR obtains the final launch code to fire the nuclear missiles, it suddenly stops the Global Thermonuclear War game and suggests, “How about a nice game of chess?” to be played instead.
In 1985, two years after the fictional “War Games” movie, seven New Jersey teenagers played the fictional film out for real.
Using their home computers, these teens accessed US government computers containing classified codes, telephone numbers, credit card information, and other data used by US Pentagon generals.
Somehow, the teen hackers reprogramed and changed the orbital position of US earth-orbiting satellites, resulting in the disruption of telephone communications between two continents.
The seven teens were eventually arrested and charged by agents from the US Government.
You can read the July 17, 1985 newspaper article about the teen hackers at https://bit.ly/3xDzK3H.
I was thinking of watching “War Games” again. The last time I watched this movie was when it was on a VHS (video home system) tape cassette.
On the other hand, I might instead prefer a nice game of chess.
