[SJDXA] ARRL IT: it’s far worse than they told us.

Tue Sep 24 20:05:11 EDT 2024

Thank you for sharing the ARRL probables.
Everyone should watch this.
73,
Bob W2ARP

Sent by a iPad by,
A.Robert Pantazes

On Tue, Sep 24, 2024 at 3:36 PM John Crovelli <w2gd at hotmail.com> wrote:

> I strongly recommend listening to the SEDXC recording beginning at about
> 16:00.  Very candid report by an ARRL Director.
>
> GD
> ------------------------------
> *From:* sjdxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net <sjdxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net> on
> behalf of N2OO via SJDXA <sjdxa at mailman.qth.net>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, September 24, 2024 3:20 PM
> *To:* South Jersey DX Association <sjdxa at mailman.qth.net>
> *Subject:* [SJDXA] ARRL IT: it’s far worse than they told us.
>
>
> *Sharing the following. De N2OO*
>
>
>
> *The following was posted on CADXA Groups.io and other Web sources: *
>
>
> Heres a copy of a post by AA6YQ, developer of DXLab, on Facebooks My ARRL
> Voice group.
>
>
>
> *My ARRL Voice*
> <https://www.facebook.com/groups/1181497555327577/?hoisted_section_header_type=recently_seen&multi_permalinks=3315531345257510&__cft__%5b0%5d=AZUiDrPkiXVoWhdsGVxGHWROKhrKccIAMIxrHEZfObgfL3H8yu-hQBRvDNRDw3lyUlmIjHmtzGP153FcUD3i4LMjA4kWBY7nZr8blmM8cavBCv8_JvTfr7lw6eKSAjAUBzAApHgQQZJhVS63iDrSca0vXFjFSFq1hZXU5o09XfzJXaD3mTwO1bVQMDH_cem3140JMoMqUpjb9HWWin5LpHvhqa8o456UrtrLOTqoXhSvUQ&__tn__=-UC%2CP-R>
>
> *Dave Bernstein*
> <https://www.facebook.com/groups/1181497555327577/user/669779391/?__cft__%5b0%5d=AZUiDrPkiXVoWhdsGVxGHWROKhrKccIAMIxrHEZfObgfL3H8yu-hQBRvDNRDw3lyUlmIjHmtzGP153FcUD3i4LMjA4kWBY7nZr8blmM8cavBCv8_JvTfr7lw6eKSAjAUBzAApHgQQZJhVS63iDrSca0vXFjFSFq1hZXU5o09XfzJXaD3mTwO1bVQMDH_cem3140JMoMqUpjb9HWWin5LpHvhqa8o456UrtrLOTqoXhSvUQ&__tn__=%2CP-R>
>
>
> <https://www.facebook.com/>
>
>
>
> *ARRL IT: Its far worse than they told us!*
>
> On 2024-09-19, ARRL Southeast Division Director Mickey Baker N4MB met via
> Zoom with the Southeast DX Club. A recording of the meeting is available
> here:
>
> https://sedxc.org/sedxc/zoom/zoom_09.19.2024.mp4
>
>
>
> Mickeys presentation (delivered without slides) begins at 11:20 .
>
> Here are the points relevant to the System Disruption
>
> 1. Backups were destroyed; either the previous IT Directors effort to
> shift backups to inexpensive write-mostly storage on Amazon Web Services
> failed, or the ransomware perpetrators found these online backups and
> deleted them.
>
> 2. The new IT Director hired after the incident installed a new backup
> appliance, but reported it to be working without ever having tested its
> recovery functionality or performance.
>
> 3. Decryption keys provided by the ransomware perpetrators did not decrypt
> the ARRLs finance system; ARRL staff are still trying to recover the
> database from this system. All accounting is currently manual. This is why
> the 2023 Annual Report has not yet been published.
>
> 4. Recovering LoTW was accomplished by hiring John Bloom the original
> developer who released LoTW in 2003 with no testing and no user
> documentation. LoTW is running on versions of Centos (Linux) and SAP MaxDB
> both of which have been unsupported for more than 5 years. (Duh: guess what
> happens when you starve LoTW of development and maintenance resources for
> the past 7 years).
>
> 5. An IT Advisory Committee was created and is chaired by Kristen
> McIntyre, K6WX - an Apple Developer with no IT Operations experience. She
> advocates recreating the ARRLs IT environment from scratch. This committees
> first 3 meeting have made no progress.
>
> 6. Since early July, Jon Bloom has been working alone to re-implement the
> DXCC System in Python. The system previously ran on Windows 98 and FoxPro.
> FoxPro wont run on any operating system after Windows 98, and the ARRL did
> not retain the ability to create a Windows 98 system.
>
> 7. There is no documentation of which ARRL applications and services are
> running on which hardware.
>
> 8. Everything is running in 3 rooms on the second floor of ARRL
> Headquarters, with Servers and Storage in different rooms. Its been that
> way for ~20 years.
>
> 9. The ARRL is still spending ~$40K a month on recovery efforts (Finance
> system, DXCC system)
>
> 10. Mickey is unhappy with the approach to recovery. His offer to serve as
> Project Leader at no charge has not been accepted.
>
> Bluntly, this situation is ridiculous. The complete absence of IT
> competence from the CEO on down is outrageous.
>
> CEO Minsters 2021 proposal to re-implement LoTW from scratch his infamous
> Project X - was cancelled in 2023 as unaffordable before it ever got off
> the ground. Now Ms. McIntyre wants to re-implement the entire IT
> infrastructure from scratch? The ARRL badly needs leadership with
> experience in modern software engineering and iterative development.
>
> Dont like it? Engage with your ARRL Director! Contact information is here:
>
> http://www.arrl.org/divisions
>
> de AA6YQ
>
>
>
>
>
> *Jim N7US*
>
>
> *73. Bob Schenck, N2OO*
>
>
> Sent from my handheld Apple radio
>
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