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	<title>COBOL &#8211; CalWatchdog.com</title>
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		<title>DMV &#8216;meltdown&#8217; latest in long list of CA computer woes</title>
		<link>https://calwatchdog.com/2016/10/31/dmv-meltdown-latest-long-list-ca-computer-woes/</link>
					<comments>https://calwatchdog.com/2016/10/31/dmv-meltdown-latest-long-list-ca-computer-woes/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Chris Reed]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 31 Oct 2016 15:31:25 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[COBOL]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[California state government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[computer problems]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[John Thomas Flynn]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DMW meltdown]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://calwatchdog.com/?p=91687</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[The government of the state that is home to Silicon Valley and is widely considered the global leader in innovative technology continues to be plagued by problems with computers. On]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-91689" src="http://calwatchdog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/FullSizeRender-e1477778497177.jpg" alt="fullsizerender" width="444" height="259" align="right" hspace="20" />The government of the state that is home to Silicon Valley and is widely considered the global leader in innovative technology continues to be plagued by problems with computers.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On Friday, the California Department of Motor Vehicles reported things were close to normal after a chaotic week of mass computer failures, with just three DMV offices still offline. At one point earlier in the week, more than 120 of the the DMV’s 188 offices statewide were unable to handle such basic tasks as processing requests for new licenses or vehicle registrations.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Both the DMV’s main computer and its primary backup computer suffered what officials called “meltdowns.” In post mortems on the problem, experts outside state government expressed disbelief that both the main and backup computer were directly connected and housed in the same room, making both susceptible to the same risks from overheating, hacking and other problems.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“If their definition of disaster recovery is having primary and backup systems in the same hardware chassis, that’s grotesque,” </span><a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-dmv-computer-20161028-story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">one expert told</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> The Los Angeles Times.</span></p>
<h4>IT problems with veterans, CalPERS, UC and more</h4>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But to followers of the state government, the DMV’s information technology headaches were only the latest in a long line of embarrassing, basic problems.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In June, </span><a href="http://www.courthousenews.com/2016/06/16/audit-finds-wasted-money-in-ca-vets-system.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">a report</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> from the state auditor’s office said the California Department of Veterans Affairs had wasted $28 million on an erratic computer system that was supposed to process services and pay bills for care provided to state veterans.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In 2015, the Sacramento Bee <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article13595924.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported </a>that attempts to upgrade the state’s payroll and court system computers had been shut down with nothing to show for $850 million in spending. Similar attempts to upgrade payroll computers of the University of California’s campuses and hospitals were reported to be $50 million over budget and two years behind schedule.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In 2013, unemployment benefits for 150,000 residents went unpaid over the Labor Day weekend because of problems with new computers used by the state’s Employment Development Department.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In 2012, the California Public Employees’ Retirement system was besieged by complaints from state retirees whose health insurance policies weren’t being renewed because of problems with CalPERS’ new $514 million computer system. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In 2009, state Controller John Chiang said he was unable to comply with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s order to furlough state workers and reduce their pay during a budget crisis because the state’s computers were based on a programming language from the 1950s &#8212; COBOL &#8212; and couldn’t readily be reprogrammed.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Chiang </span><a href="http://www.governing.com/columns/tech-talk/costs-liabilities-using-old-computer-systems.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">faced charges</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> from Republicans that he was just trying to insulate government union workers from the pain of the budget crisis. But John Thomas Flynn, hired by Gov. Pete Wilson as the state’s first chief information officer, said in a 2009 interview with me that he was inclined to believe Chiang.</span></p>
<h4>Candid self-assessment is not the norm</h4>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Flynn has described California government’s computer failures as being the direct result of a culture in which no one is punished when bad things happen and candid self-assessment is rate.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sacramento-based computer consultant Alex Castro offered a similar observation last year to Bee State Worker columnist Jon Ortiz. He said when an organizational cultures refuse to acknowledge their shortcomings, </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">“they run into brick walls: bad leadership, bad tech people, lack of vision, overestimation of (in-house) skill sets.”</span></p>
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		<title>State government&#8217;s computers so primitive they&#8217;re tough to hack</title>
		<link>https://calwatchdog.com/2014/12/25/state-governments-computers-so-primitive-theyre-tough-to-hack/</link>
					<comments>https://calwatchdog.com/2014/12/25/state-governments-computers-so-primitive-theyre-tough-to-hack/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Chris Reed]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 25 Dec 2014 14:30:46 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[California economy]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[COBOL]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[state payroll]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://calwatchdog.com/?p=71802</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[The hack of Sony Pictures by shadowy types believed associated with the North Korean government took another twist on Christmas Eve when Sony went ahead and released &#8220;The Interview&#8221; on]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The hack of Sony Pictures by shadowy types believed associated with the North Korean government took another twist on Christmas Eve when Sony went ahead and released &#8220;The Interview&#8221; on YouTube after initially caving to hackers&#8217; demands and scrapping plans for any release of the crude, Pyongyang-mocking comedy. But the hack still portends a new era in which large institutions are targeted not just to steal secrets but for other purposes &#8212; starting with embarrassment and manipulation.</p>
<p>So which sort of institution is particularly vulnerable? One would think the state of California because of its long history of incompetence in upgrading and installing computer systems.</p>
<p><img decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-71808" src="http://calwatchdog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/old.computers.jpg" alt="old.computers" width="323" height="252" align="right" hspace="20" srcset="https://calwatchdog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/old.computers.jpg 323w, https://calwatchdog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/old.computers-282x220.jpg 282w" sizes="(max-width: 323px) 100vw, 323px" />This is from a 2010 Sac Bee story about the state being unable to adjust paychecks to reflect fewer hours paid during a furlough:</p>
<p><em>“California&#8217;s payroll computer system is so old that it relies on programming language, Common Business Oriented Language, or COBOL, that was introduced in the late 1950s, popularized in the 1960s and 1970s, and is no longer routinely taught to programmers.</em></p>
<p><em>“&#8217;When I was studying computer science in India, in 1973, none of us wanted to study because it was considered old-fashioned back then,&#8217;” said Prem Devanbu, computer science professor at the University of California, Davis.</em></p>
<h3>State agency overwhelmed by computer chores</h3>
<p>This is from a Governing magazine story the same year:</p>
<p><em>Dale Jablonsky, who until August was CIO of the California Employment Development Department (EDD), knows the situation all too well. The EDD runs California&#8217;s unemployment insurance program, where caseloads skyrocketed during the current recession. As the economic downturn deepened, Congress repeatedly extended the length of time individuals could draw unemployment benefits.</em></p>
<p><em>“In all, federal lawmakers approved seven benefit extensions since the recession began — and each was a nightmare for the EDD. Every extension requires changes to several hundred interconnected computer programs in the EDD&#8217;s eligibility system. Those programs are written in common business oriented language (COBOL), an ancient programming language, and modifications must be hand-performed by increasingly rare — and expensive — COBOL experts.</em></p>
<p><em>“&#8217;It typically takes two to three weeks to implement changes, depending on how complex the federal legislation is,&#8217; Jablonsky says. &#8216;Sometimes the legislation is so complex it takes five to six weeks to implement.&#8217; Indeed, implementing one particularly complex piece of legislation in late 2009 required changes to 650 programs in the EDD system. The resulting delay in mailing unemployment checks made front-page news throughout the state … .”</em></p>
<h3>COBOL not hospitable to hackers</h3>
<p>Oddly enough, however, using a computer language invented in 1959 actually is a deterrent to hackers. Computer World explained why in 2000. COBOL is a &#8230;</p>
<p><em>&#8230; simple language that&#8217;s so easy to read, it&#8217;s impossible to hide malicious programs. A language for mainframe data locked securely behind tried-and-tested access controls like the Resource Access Control Facility (RACF), Top Secret and ACF2&#8230;. Checking code for malicious programs is easy in COBOL.</em></p>
<p>COBOL can be part of a larger security problem when programmers try to connect it with newer software that can be accessed over the Internet. But by itself, its backwardness is an asset.</p>
<p>So now the government in the state that&#8217;s home to Silicon Valley and the birth of the information technology revolution has a reason to remain trapped in the mid-20th century on its IT.</p>
<p>Merry Christmas!</p>
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		<title>Good news for state: Programmers found for antiquated computers</title>
		<link>https://calwatchdog.com/2014/01/15/good-news-for-chiang-programmers-availalable-for-his-antiquated-computers/</link>
					<comments>https://calwatchdog.com/2014/01/15/good-news-for-chiang-programmers-availalable-for-his-antiquated-computers/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Chris Reed]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 15 Jan 2014 14:30:57 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Inside Government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Waste, Fraud, and Abuse]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[COBOL]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[payroll system]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[unemployment benefits system]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[antiquated computers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[punch cards]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Arnold Schwarzenegger]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[John Chiang]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://calwatchdog.com/?p=57524</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[One of the strangest stories out of Sacramento in recent years has to do with state Controller John Chiang&#039;s repeated warnings that it would be difficult to implement furloughs of]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>One of the strangest stories out of Sacramento in recent years has to do with state Controller John Chiang&#039;s repeated warnings that it would be difficult to implement furloughs of state workers because of the antiquated computer system used to process the state&#039;s payroll. This is from a front-page Sac Bee story in July 2010:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>&#8220;In a world where newer and faster is touted as better, California state workers&#039; prospects for full pay rest partly on old and outdated technology.</em></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>&#8220;The state whose Silicon Valley pioneered computer advances finds two of its top elected officials fighting over how quickly the state&#039;s Vietnam War-era payroll system could be altered to handle a temporary pay cut.</em></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>&#8220;Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has ordered the wages of nearly 200,000 state workers chopped to the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour during the budget impasse, after which it would be restored.</em></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>&#8220;State Controller John Chiang has balked, filing suit to argue that he cannot reasonably comply because of the old payroll system, deficiencies in the wording of the pay order, and an inherent conflict between state and federal law.</em></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>&#8220;California&#039;s payroll computer system is so old that it relies on programming language, Common Business Oriented Language, or COBOL, that was introduced in the late 1950s, popularized in the 1960s and 1970s, and is no longer routinely taught to programmers.</em></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>&#8220;&#039;When I was studying computer science in India, in 1973, none of us wanted to study because it was considered old-fashioned back then,&#039;&#8221; said Prem Devanbu, computer science professor at the University of California, Davis.</em></p>
<p>In September 2010, Governing magazine noted that it wasn&#039;t just California&#039;s state payroll that was stuck in ancient computer history:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>&#8220;Dale Jablonsky, who until August was CIO of the California Employment Development Department (EDD), knows the situation all too well. The EDD runs California&#039;s unemployment insurance program, where caseloads skyrocketed during the current recession. As the economic downturn deepened, Congress repeatedly extended the length of time individuals could draw unemployment benefits.</em></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>&#8220;In all, federal lawmakers approved seven benefit extensions since the recession began &#8212; and each was a nightmare for the EDD. Every extension requires changes to several hundred interconnected computer programs in the EDD&#039;s eligibility system. Those programs are written in common business oriented language (COBOL), an ancient programming language, and modifications must be hand-performed by increasingly rare &#8212; and expensive &#8212; COBOL experts.</em></p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>&#8220;&#039;It typically takes two to three weeks to implement changes, depending on how complex the federal legislation is,&#039; Jablonsky says. &#039;Sometimes the legislation is so complex it takes five to six weeks to implement.&#039; Indeed, implementing one particularly complex piece of legislation in late 2009 required changes to 650 programs in the EDD system. The resulting delay in mailing unemployment checks made front-page news throughout the state &#8230; .&#8221;</em></p>
<h3>COBOL whiz kids? Look to the southeast &#8212; the far southeast</h3>
<p>Since then, the state has been trying to modernize many of its computer systems. But perhaps officials shouldn&#039;t worry so much. It turns out that there are still plenty of COBOL programmers. They just <a href="http://www.zdnet.com/cobol-is-alive-and-kicking-in-brazil-7000024935/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">speak Portuguese</a>.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>&#8220;Programming language Cobol still represents an important part of development budgets in Brazilian IT organizations and that will continue to be the case in the coming years, according to research.</em></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>&#8220;According to a study by software vendor Micro Focus that covered 370 development professionals in Brazil, some 52 percent of those polled say that Cobol is the main mainframe language utilized at their organizations.</em></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>&#8220;In terms of resourced devoted to development in that programming language, 49 percent of the respondents said they write only Cobol-based code and 43 percent said their employers have teams exclusively dedicated to development in Cobol.</em></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>&#8220;Looking forward, some 64.8 percent said they intend to write new Cobol-based applications in the next few years.&#8221;</em></p>
<p>So maybe John Chiang can head to Rio with a HR team and do some interviewing.</p>
<p>Or maybe the government of the state that leads the globe in information technology can get its IT act together and finally leave COBOL &#8212; invented the same year that Hawaii joined the union &#8212; behind. </p>
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