# The Unfixed Code: From Greenspan’s Memory Save to AI-Guided War

2026-06-22 · Source: AI on Medium · Field: Technology & Digital — Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Cybersecurity & Data Privacy, Software Development & Engineering · Depth: Intermediate, long

Summary

A seventy-year software architecture project, characterized by deliberate vulnerabilities, is traced from Alan Greenspan's 1960s COBOL code to the 2026 AI strikes on Iran. This lineage connects the Y2K bug, the Promis backdoor's alleged weaponization for global surveillance, and the 9/11 software failures involving Ptech, Odigo, and Amdocs, which purportedly facilitated the attacks. The narrative extends to the Epstein-Thiel-Barak nexus funding Carbyne (successor to Comverse/Odigo) and Palantir's role in the 2003 Iraq War's fabricated WMD pretext. The 2026 "Operation Epic Fury" against Iran, using Palantir's Maven Smart System and Anthropic's Claude to generate 1,000 targets in 24 hours, including the Minab primary school, is presented as the culmination of AI-guided warfare. The July 19, 2024 CrowdStrike outage, which crashed 8.5 million Windows devices and critical infrastructure, serves as recent evidence of this "unfixed vulnerability" and centralized control, arguing these are "features" for power concentration, not accidental bugs.

Key takeaway

For policy makers evaluating critical infrastructure security, recognize that systemic software vulnerabilities may be deliberate design choices, not mere bugs. Your focus should shift from patching isolated flaws to auditing foundational code for centralized control mechanisms and potential backdoors. Demand transparency and decentralized architectures to mitigate risks of weaponized software, preventing future events like the 2024 CrowdStrike outage or AI-guided targeting.

Key insights

Systemic software vulnerabilities are deliberate features designed for centralized control and weaponization, not accidental bugs.

Principles

• Small, hidden flaws can hold entire systems hostage.
• Control of code dictates control of reality.
• Centralized software creates single points of failure.

Topics

• Software Vulnerabilities
• AI Warfare
• Critical Infrastructure Security
• Surveillance Systems
• Supply Chain Attacks
• Geopolitical Control

Best for: CTO, VP of Engineering/Data, Executive, Tech Journalist, Policy Maker, AI Security Engineer

Related on AIssential

• The patching treadmill: Why traditional application security is no longer enough — Reactive security models are insufficient for modern, fast-paced, AI-assisted software development, demanding a shift left.
• No breakthrough in US-Iran talks — Geopolitical conflicts and rapid AI advancements are reshaping global security, economic stability, and technological governance.
• the claude leak made one thing harder to ignore — Agent products are sophisticated control systems, with orchestration and explicit control layers being critical.
• Is your robot vacuum safe? Here’s why it matters. — Systemic identity failures, unpatched systems, and social engineering remain critical cybersecurity vulnerabilities across industries.
• Brace for the patch tsunami: AI is unearthing decades of buried code debt — AI-driven vulnerability discovery will expose decades of technical debt, necessitating a rapid, large-scale patching response.
• AI Just Found a 27-Year-Old Bug in One of the World’s Most Secure Operating Systems. — AI can now find deeply hidden, decades-old software vulnerabilities that human and traditional tools miss.

Open in AIssential →

Editorial summary, takeaway, and curation by AIssential. Original article published by AI on Medium.