Technology

Simple solution: Don't connect it to the Internet. Hackers hate this one weird trick.

It really depends if these systems (that appear to control arrival boards) are on a network or not. If they're not, then there is minimal risk to leave them the way they are. Somebody would need physical access to the devices to do harm. If they are on a network then that's a pretty big deal, but some attacks could be mitigated against by tunnelling and/or additional packet filtering to ensure the integrity of messages.

Continuing on a railway theme you should be FAR more worried all the devices that run up and down the side of railway lines - PLCs that talk with each other and operations centres to control things like lights, junctions, crossings etc. If they're more than 5 years old then chances are then all that traffic is in the clear, and because these things live in boxes by the railway line, it wouldn't take much to break into a network and potentially kill people by running two trains into each other.

they can execute their intended tasks without incident

Now if only the Deutsche Bahn could do that too

Lmao they don't know all the exploits people learn first are the brutally insane and easy stuff that works on outdated machines like heartbleed and eternal blue.

Some retired old fart who can't be bothered to learn fancy-schmancy Web 2.0. Rock on like it's '93

They're gonna party like it's 1989

I would love it so much. I’d feel right at home. I miss sitting in my room and learning everything I could about DOS. That was the best time I ever had with computers.

I once built, setup, and maintained about 20 computers for a Christian school for free just because I loved doing it so much.

I wish I still had that enthusiasm for tech.

Frankly that's nothing. In the worst case a train won't start, which for DB really isn't something unusual. It's far more disturbing how the whole global financial market sometimes rely on code that's still written in COBOL.

Well, DOS is open source now. And that old hardware was quite reliable. Fewer moving parts, I'd expect fewer things to break.

Isn't pretty much all airport scheduling based off software from the 80s or something?

Edit: Found a video about it.

And in many cases if it gets replaced it's for a system that looks fancier but actually has more problems than the original... See Phoenix for the Canadian government employees pay.

You mean I can use my decades of Fortran knowledge somewhere?! If I could get a wfh position in about 3 years, that'd be awesome.

I've seen those postings and some executive is living in dreamland thinking they can hire someone to do that for $25/hr.

You might, actually. Provided there is no available EU applicant.

They’re probably still running on their own Netware network. Is there still Win16 compatible malware going around?

Was it really FUN or is it not just nostalgia? I would not reaaaally want to fiddle with the autostart-crap again. It often took soooo long. Even with those auto-optimizers...

lmao, 60k eur tops. wages in Germany suck ass, earning at least something is possible if you are running independent consulting or climbing corporate ladder, having some unique expertise or going extra mile as an employee is pretty much pointless.