Read more at source.
Read more at source.
This isn't the first time SSA has attempted to move away from COBOL. In 2017, SSA announced a plan to receive hundreds of millions in funding to replace its core systems. The agency predicted that it would take around five years to modernize these systems. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, the agency shifted its focus to more public-facing projects. The current proposed migration within a few months is a drastic deviation from the previously planned timeline.
COBOL, a programming language created in the 1950s by computing pioneer Grace Hopper, has been widely used for mainframes due to its ability to process and store large amounts of data quickly. As of 2016, SSA's infrastructure contained more than 60 million lines of code written in COBOL, with millions more written in other legacy coding languages. The agency's core programmatic systems and architecture haven't been substantially updated since the 1980s, indicating its deep reliance on COBOL.
The expedited migration plan could lead to invisible errors and omissions, disrupting payments to the millions of Americans relying on Social Security benefits. Additionally, the recent cuts to the agency by DOGE have already resulted in frequent website crashes and long wait times, further exacerbating the potential risks of the migration.
Of course one of the big risks is not underpayment or overpayment per se but [its also] not paying someone at all and not knowing about it. The invisible errors and omissions, an SSA technologist tells WIRED.
