COBOL Programming Language Compared to Digital Asbestos in New Analysis
Original: COBOL is the Asbestos of Programming Languages
Why This Matters
Highlights critical infrastructure dependency on aging technology affecting billions in transactions
WIRED analysis compares COBOL, the 60-year-old programming language behind 80% of code written by 2000, to asbestos due to its widespread use in critical systems and difficulty of removal. New Jersey's pandemic unemployment crisis highlighted ongoing dependency issues.
COBOL, created in 1959 by a committee including Grace Hopper, was designed as a Common Business-Oriented Language to solve programming portability issues. The language handles approximately $3 trillion in daily financial transactions and supports numerous government systems including motor vehicle records and unemployment insurance. During COVID-19, New Jersey's governor admitted lacking COBOL developers to update unemployment systems, with inefficiencies costing US GDP an estimated $105 billion in 2020. Despite quality improvements, the state's new unemployment system still relies on COBOL-powered mainframes. The language was designed to be readable in plain English, allowing hundreds of words compared to Java's 68, but complexity emerges in large-scale implementations spanning thousands of lines.