For nearly 20 years, the launch code for US nuclear missiles was 00000000

You know how a military guy with a special briefcase was supposed to have followed the US president around, carrying what were allegedly the secret, continually changing codes needed to launch a nuclear attack?

It might as well have been filled with shredded newspaper, as Mashable's Joe Veix puts it.

That's because, according to a recently published paper about Permissive Action Links (PALs) - small security devices that prevent setting off nuclear weapons without the right code and the right authority - the "secret unlock" code for all US Minuteman nuclear missiles for almost 20 years during the Cold War was set to the jaw-droppingly simple code of eight zeros: 00000000.

[link to nakedsecurity.sophos.com]