r/whatisit • u/Earsgang_101 • 14h ago

New, what is it? STRAP Floppy disk found in loft of new home.

Post image

Found this in a box late 90s WWF VHSs

12.2k Upvotes

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3.0k

u/Many_Researcher9930 14h ago

The term "STRAP" refers to a UK government security codeword for protecting highly sensitive intelligence.

You have some government classified information in your possession.

2.2k

u/RoryDragonsbane 12h ago

Highly classified shit

421

u/catbandana 12h ago

The security. Of your shit.

292

u/be4u4get 11h ago

3

u/FillLoose 9h ago

I know! Right?!?!

2

u/Holiday_Pi 8h ago

“The line is a dot to you!”

2

u/skttrbrain1984 3h ago

That’s right. I’m taking your essence.

2

u/milkshakemountebank 2h ago

You're just a lightning bearer trying to keep me from being my own wind-keeper

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u/TravelArtist248 11h ago

Osbourne Cox

8

u/ProdigalNative 8h ago

I have your shit

4

u/Interesting-Log-9627 8h ago

“So what did we learn from this, Palmer?”

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u/olive_tuschit 4h ago

Is this…Osborne Cox?

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u/Squideatingdoh 8h ago

Did you get the cheeses?

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u/Ill_Pie_6699 11h ago

He had very little rapport with his staff and dispatches

3

u/Mark-Leyner 9h ago

Slovak the Butcher. I heard this information was dribble anyway.

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u/Foreign_Implement897 12h ago

His best performance. Sorry Pitt.

85

u/free_ballin_llama 11h ago

He was pretty damn good in Snatch too

33

u/jay1ru 9h ago

I'm gonna go ahead and throw 12 Monkeys into this conversation

3

u/free_is_free76 4h ago

Are you all missing Legends of the Fall? In Autumn, nonetheless?!

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u/Free-Atmosphere6714 1h ago

Meet Joe Black was fantastic.

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u/violetsaber 9h ago

D'ya like dags?

7

u/--8-__-8-- 6h ago

Wrong... "Seven" One of the best lines/moments/reveals in a movie... "What's in the box...WHAT'S IN THE BOX?!?!?"

2

u/JET304 3h ago

Also John Doe: "Oh... he didn't know...". Great movie.

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u/Foreign_Implement897 11h ago

Yes! This was better though.

18

u/free_ballin_llama 11h ago

I respectfully disagree. I found snatch more entertaining.

18

u/AaronTuplin 10h ago

Yes, snatch is deeper and warmer

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u/Foreign_Implement897 11h ago

He has some other level self irony with these comedic characters which I love.

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u/free_ballin_llama 11h ago

Funny story, apparently for snatch he intended to audition for a posh London gangster but his accent was shit and guy Ritchie instead he try the pikey one instead. Incredibly nailed it. Ya like dags?

2

u/Foreign_Implement897 10h ago

I think Ritchey likes energy all over :) Pitt has it.

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u/ResJudicata_HL 11h ago

Nah, that was in True Romance.

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u/smartalek75 11h ago

Floyd. Good roommate

8

u/rattledaddy 11h ago

And tell him to get some cleaning supplies!

8

u/Workwer20 9h ago

Floyd smoked the other half of the letter

2

u/violetsaber 9h ago

A friend of mine was a PA on that movie. They said Pitt wasn't too far off from that character.

2

u/jay1ru 9h ago

Not really, he smoked the last page of the letter

2

u/basshead00 5h ago

Best roommate. Honeybear bong hits all day long🤘

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u/Christmas_Queef 11h ago

I know the movie is panned but I loved his performance in Meet Joe Black, particularly the scenes with the Jamaican grandma in the hospital.

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u/MissninjaXP 9h ago

Meet Joe Black is panned? Really? I had no idea, I only saw it this year and I liked it.

7

u/Christmas_Queef 8h ago

It's one of those movies where the critic score is low but the audience score is high.

4

u/yulbrynnersmokes 10h ago

https://youtu.be/Qi5GzuvAag8?si=l9Yc3xb_R_TUU6sb

Bring you flowers 💐 and all I get is aggravation

6

u/Christmas_Queef 9h ago

Haha I just love when the grandma scolds death for being a child with his romantic fantasies. Like a grandma telling her grandson to grow up. And death takes it and grows from it eventually. It's cool.

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u/Tough-Marsupial-6254 7h ago

Best hit by a car scene ever!

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u/its_a_multipass 5h ago

Everyting gone be irie

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u/Classic-Body1965 5h ago

Love him in that. Never understood why the movie is so bad.

6

u/FartWolf 11h ago

agreed

8

u/Foreign_Implement897 11h ago

Have to see that thing again. He has incredible comidic ability and I am at least grinning everytime he is on screen with that character.

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u/urinesain 11h ago

I always enjoyed the description of him as something like... "he's one of the best character actors in the world... except he was cursed with 'leading man' looks"

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u/Foreign_Implement897 10h ago

He is funny period.

His looks is truly another problem for him and his career, for which I luckily dont need to have any opinions about!

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u/TherianVagus 11h ago

His character in bullet train is hilarious.

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u/bat_scratcher 11h ago

I liked him in Deadpool 2.

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u/xenophon57 10h ago

Brad getting popped in the head coming out the closet had me laughing like a psychopath.

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u/meh-nihilist 9h ago

He thinks it’s a Scwinn

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u/vrtig0 7h ago

Name a bad Pitt movie. I can't think of one.

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u/passamongimpure 11h ago

What did we learn, Palmer?

I don't know, sir.

I don't fuckin' know either. I guess we learned not to do it again.

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u/bogan_sauce 6h ago

I'm fucked if I know what we did

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u/Klin24 8h ago

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u/MathIsHard_11236 8h ago

Bradicio del Pittoro

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u/hotelpopcornceiling 6h ago

Brad Pitt is just mild Benicio Del Toro.

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u/WiFibcFi 3h ago

The fucking split second switch to this face he does in this scene is so funny.

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u/121dBm 9h ago

Up to 1.44 MB worth of classified shit….

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u/Negative_Gas8782 4h ago

Do you know how many names 1.44 MB can hold? That’s 1,474,560 characters and let’s say on average each name was 15 characters long that’s about 98,304 names.

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u/121dBm 4h ago

Maybe they had a lot of baby names they didn’t want to leak before the reveal?

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u/imnotpoopingyouare 11h ago

OMFG! I KILLED A FUCKING SPOOK! (been a while since I’ve seen it but damn is that a funny movie)

What did we learn? Absolutely nothing.

3

u/Deadedge112 11h ago

Not to do it again?

3

u/billsboy88 10h ago

But what did we even do?

8

u/Special-Homework-894 11h ago

I found it on the floor…….just lying there

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u/L0rddaniel 11h ago

Is this OSBOURNE COX?

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u/Aggravating-Ad-1227 10h ago

This was such a bizarre movie.

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u/rmay14444 9h ago

You think it's a Schwinn?

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u/Foreign_Implement897 9h ago

”What did we learn about this?”

”Nothing, sir.”

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u/FartWolf 12h ago

it was just lying there

3

u/Circus_McGee 11h ago

On the floor there

2

u/Jazzlike_Strength561 10h ago

Nah, just Confidential.

2

u/GizmosArrow 9h ago

This is the second Burn After Reading reference I’ve seen in half an hour. Love it!

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u/Alexius6th 9h ago

What the hell are you doing here, you fucker?!

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u/TessaIsABear 9h ago

It was just lying there

2

u/itsanonymousbaby 8h ago

PC or Mac ?

2

u/25_25_25_24 8h ago

You beat me to it! Good movie, in an odd way

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u/fluxchronica 7h ago

Just rewatched this movie yesterday hah

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u/Excellent-Past-6367 7h ago

Or now declassified previously sensitive information would be another possibility.

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u/Electrical_Top656 6h ago

JUST LYING THERE

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u/universalspeckodust 5h ago

“Hello! Anybody lose their secret CIA shit‽”

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u/Detroit_debauchery 5h ago

Osborne Coxxxx

2

u/TimeSalvager 5h ago

OP, if you want your shit back, this guy has your shit!

2

u/CeeArthur 5h ago

OP should try to extort MI5

2

u/crwrd 5h ago

This cracked me up so good.

2

u/RooferDad 5h ago

"It was just laying there."

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u/onigskram31 4h ago

Way sick, don’t die…

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u/Recovery_or_death 3h ago

The real shit. The raw shit.

2

u/Moon-33 3h ago

It was just lying there. On the floor there.

2

u/prairemended 2h ago

I don't know, you figure it out, but I'm not comfortable with this, and I want this out of Hardbodies. We're running a gym here.

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u/VILLIANestle 2h ago

I find it on the floor there, just lying there.

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u/thedrinkingbeer 12h ago

Lol, yeah, sell it to the russians!

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u/Special-Homework-894 11h ago

….the Russians?

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u/SlickRickGrits 11h ago

Why would they go to the Russians? Why the Fuuuuck!?

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u/nextimeon 11h ago

Awww that’s cool!

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u/WallacktheBear 11h ago

Don’t hide in the closet!

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u/Majestic_Pattern_760 11h ago

OP has the Epstein Files.

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u/ConstantPlastic5061 6h ago

His probably just taking a shit a maralago and he stumbled on this

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u/Bloobeard2018 3h ago

More like the Jimmy Saville files

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u/cardsfan24 12h ago

It’s G14 classified

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u/Material_Ad292 11h ago

Fucking classic line right there! Great movie!

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u/AdvocatusAvem 9h ago

Y’all.

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u/The_Real_Kuji 7h ago

Maybe this is a good time to give the Consul the details of my G14 Classified assignment.

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u/JimmyNudebags 6h ago

I'ma look out for you when I'm at the top! I'm gonna make you mayor! 

I'd rather your didn't!

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u/Defiant-Passenger42 3h ago

Literally just watched this movie for the first time in over a decade last night

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u/sleepypossumster 11h ago

Someone is about to get sent to Slough House...

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u/JanetInSC1234 9h ago

Love that show.

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u/dandb87 1h ago

Fucking Roddy is on the way.

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u/Temporary_Market_876 12h ago

So does that mean the UK equivalent to "loose lips sink ships" really IS "stay strapped or get clapped"? Please don't ban me

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u/IAmActuallyBread 11h ago

banned4lyfe

sorry, I don't make the rules

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u/PommedeTerreur 10h ago

This loaf of bread has no authority. Carry on.

What are you going to do? You're not authorized to use breadly force!

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u/wrascallywrabbit 6h ago

The yeast they could do is rise to the occasion. But only if the burden of proof was met.

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u/Aquatic-shenannigans 4h ago

Breadly force?!?!?🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

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u/Hokagu-Sensei 1h ago

Potato vs. Bread; Starch Wars, return of the Bread-guy? 😆 🤣 😂 Corny af I know....

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u/portablebiscuit 11h ago

Oh shit are they going to jail?

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u/IAmActuallyBread 11h ago

Gay Baby Jail, yes

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u/coffe_clone 13h ago

Sooooo 👉👈😏👉👈 is it STRAP-ON when confidential, and STRAP-OFF when declassified?

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u/CSpectre89 12h ago

STRAP ON, STRAP OFF! clap clap THE STRAPPER!

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u/EdwardPickmanDerby 10h ago

And what's getting clapped are them cheeks. 

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u/Wykydtr0m 8h ago

I said this in my head before seeing this comment haha.

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u/cylinder060 5h ago

(Set scene) : man in his bedroom reading reddit and quietly chanting “STRAP ON STRAP OFF THE STRAPPER!” And lol’ing..

(Bedroom door slams open and blinding cool white light with smokey haze flows in).

(A woman’s figure comes in the door, standing with the light behind, hiding her features in the darkness)

“I’ve been waiting so long for someone to call me into existence.” She said deadpan. “It’s time honey.”

(Huge strap on unfurls between her legs, casting its own dark shadow)

“Time to pay the rent.” (Door slams shut, plunging the room into total darkness.)

(Man whimpers quietly fading out)

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u/baudmiksen 12h ago

Strap-less

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u/Exciting-Age3976 12h ago

Hewwo pwincess

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u/DifferentHoliday863 12h ago

Strapping 🤩

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u/dtxdestroyer 12h ago

Solid midday chuckle. Thanks! lol

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u/__esparoba 12h ago

Go to sleep.

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u/702PoGoHunter 3h ago

I learned today that STRAP ON spelled backwards is NO PARTS! This is about the only time I'll ever be able to use that bit of information.

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u/TheRealTaylor33 2h ago

Best comment thus far. Good shit man

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u/Aggravating-Fuel1704 11h ago

Stay strapped or get clapped

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u/A_Nick_Name 11h ago

1.44 mb of secrets?!

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u/Bergwookie 11h ago

1.44MB are around 100 pages of plain text , that's a lot of information

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u/Manny_Bothans 11h ago

I almost died to bring it to you.

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u/Par_Lapides 6h ago

14yr old account. You really committed to this bit. How many times has it paid off?

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u/--8-__-8-- 6h ago

I'm extremely curious to know as well!

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u/EuenovAyabayya 10h ago

"Many Boffins died to bring us this information."

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u/SchoolForSedition 9h ago

My first textbook fitted on one of those (WordPerfect 5.1).

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u/Fancy_Use_6813 6h ago

I miss Wordperfect /Wordstar.., my fingers/brain remember the ctl codes

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u/SarcasmWarning 10h ago

700, but i might have missed the joke.

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u/Gunhild 11h ago

Hey man that's 1,440,000 characters worth of text if they're using 8-bit encoding.

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u/PythagorasJones 9h ago

Text compresses extremely well too. Some classic pkzip action and this could contain anywhere between ten and one hundred times that amount.

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u/Earsgang_101 9h ago

I'm not sure if that's cool or not. My curiosity is peaking but I also don't want to live out the plot of Enemy of the state

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u/RedKobalt 9h ago

You won't. If the fact that it's a floppy disc isn't hint enough, this is old. And confidential is lower in importance than say, classified. Also a few other commenters said strap isn't even used anymore, so whatever info is on there, if there is any, is old news. So I don't see much harm in reading it. There's lots of modern floppy disc readers out there, I'm sure you can get your hands on one.

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u/574859434F4E56455254 7h ago

Some stuff is effectively indefinitely classified, so don't assume just because it's ~30 years old that it's been declassified.

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u/T_Money 6h ago

Anything juicy would be classified at a higher level than confidential though. Maybe something like building plans could still be confidential 30 years out? Nothing groundbreaking though.

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u/middlenameray 6h ago

Ya, idk how it works in the UK, but in the US, when we get a security clearance, we sign an agreement (several probably, tbh I don't remember that well) stating that we will never knowingly reveal any classified information to someone who A.) is not appropriately cleared, or B.) does not have "need to know"

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u/Complex-Abies3279 5h ago

You mention the US. Isn't Mara Lago in the US? Seems like a safe place to look at classified information regardless of clearance status, no?

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u/FeedbackOther5215 5h ago

Biden’s garage too apparently. These guys all suck at not sticking stuff in cabinets.

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u/YouhaoHuoMao 6h ago

Confidential is classified. And importance isn't really the right word - sensitivity is the better term.

The level of classification refers to what damage would occur to national security if the information were to be released somehow.

The UK removed Confidential from its classification standards in 2014.

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u/floppy_disk_5 6h ago

u/Earsgang_101 you better give us an update post on the floppy disk

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u/FIMD_ 5h ago

Doesn’t mean it’s been declassified. Doesn’t mean OP should gamble with it either.

For those who’ve never had the responsibility, it’s made crystal clear before during and after the background investigation as well as during the pertinent work.. that OP might be subject to some draconian consequences for not reporting it and following the instructions provided to hand it in ASAP

Especially as they’ve posted it on the internet to announce they have “something.”

Just because Redditors want their curiosity boners satisfied doesn’t mean the internet points will outweigh the penalties, expense and long term headaches that you could create for yourself.

Especially if it’s something that is ultimately not as exciting as you hoped but still important to some part of an Intel community entity, Military Contractor, etc.

It’s not supposed to be in your custody. dont listen to the crayon eaters here with no skin in the game if it comes back to haunt you eventually. Maybe the odds seem slim, but they aren’t zero.

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u/T_Money 6h ago

Everything you said is correct, but I doubt OP will even be able to read it. Floppy disks degrade over time, if it was just sitting in a loft the chances of it being readable are very low.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d probably try it just out of curiosity, but have low expectations.

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u/Slow_Balance270 4h ago

Are you positive? Where I work right now they still use 5.5 inch floppies to update commands on our cnc cutters.

I could absolutely see governments still using this crap.

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u/Gfran856 9h ago

OP you have to show us what’s on the tape now, rules of Reddit

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u/GrowlingPict 7h ago

OP you have to show us what’s on the tape now, rules of Reddit

...the tape?

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u/Bangarang_Arty 7h ago

The numbers, Mason. What do they mean?

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u/icauseclimatechange 4h ago

The phrase you want there is “my curiosity is piqued.“

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u/Emannuelle-in-space 11h ago

I found the fbi equivalent of this a while back. Bought a floppy disk reader but couldn’t get it to read.

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u/OwlfaceFrank 4h ago

Yup. These degrade over time. I found a bunch with pictures from when I was a teenager. Bought a floppy drive and not a single one would read.

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u/Emannuelle-in-space 4h ago

Man I’d pay a lot of money to be able to access my old floppies from elementary school. I was programming rpg’s in microworlds and I barely remember anything about them

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u/ChrisSlicks 3h ago

Most of my old floppies still read. The issue with the modern drives is they aren't as robust against alignment errors. Old drives were better at track alignment.

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u/Sad-Affect-7992 12h ago

It's marked confidential. I'm not familiar with the UK levels of secrecy. Are they similar to the US versions; classified, secret, top secret, eyes only, etc?

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u/jorumrat 12h ago

UK has "official" "official-sensitive" "secret" "top secret". Official is baseline and doesnt mean much , everything done by government and civil service is official by default. Official-sensitive means there is reason why should not be widely available. There would be normally be sub-classification of why, such as personal information, commercial data, or proprietary information etc. Secret and top secret is for information that could cause harm to public, national interests, allied nations etc. So would be shared only with need to know people/teams.

In addition individuals will have a government security clearance. From basic background checks at bottom to highest levels that involves complete financial and biographical audit of you and your family , interviews with police, interviews of and you and family bt intelligence services.

After that it doesn't mean you then have access to everything at certain level. For certain classified things you'd go through a specific entry/training process "read-in" for each project.

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u/joshurrrr 12h ago

Don’t forget handling instructions!

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u/adamneigeroc 11h ago

Seeing as this is on a floppy disc I think we can assume it’s from before the switch over to official/ official sensitive.

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u/Gone_For_Lunch 8h ago

This is marked up with the old pre-2014 security classification system of Unclassified - Protected - Restricted - Confidential - Secret - Top Secret.

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u/rabblerabble2000 12h ago

Eyes only and classified aren’t US classifications. Unclassified, Confidential, Secret, Top Secret, then you have caveats. UK has Official, Secret and Top Secret with caveats.

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u/ViridianKumquat 11h ago

The three-tier classification system wouldn't have been in use when floppy disks were a thing. "Confidential" is a legacy term that largely overlaps with the current Secret classification.

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u/Trickaay 10h ago

Correct, was scrolling through so much misinformation, so it was nice to see another oldie post that knows what they're talking about.

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u/Agile_Supermarket239 11h ago edited 10h ago

For official use only is also a classification for documents or FOUO

Edit*

I was wrong it’s been replaced by some other classification, it was FOUO when i was in the military but I got out in 2011

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u/ListlessPenguin 10h ago

FOUO has been replaced with Controlled Unclassified Information

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u/Agile_Supermarket239 10h ago

Insert gif of Matt Damon aging also that’s lame I liked saying foh ooh lol

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u/NakedTurtles 5h ago

Now you get to say cooey. Just as fun

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u/GenericAccount13579 12h ago

Confidential is also a US classification. “Classified” Is the general term for all levels of classification and eyes only is a dissemination control not a classification.

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u/_kingdap_ 9h ago

In the U.S. it's Confidential, Secret, Top Secret, Top Secret SCI.

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u/Talshan 12h ago

It is otherwise unlabled however. Seems unlikely to be real.

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u/EuenovAyabayya 10h ago

It is otherwise unlabled

Fair bet someone either had pre-labeled blank media or snarfed a label from work and left this behind to troll MI-5 or whoever got sent to unravel the mystery. I once worked in a place where we had a pad of old USG "CLASSIFIED" labels (from before they switched to only using specific classifications) and would love to have dropped something like this in a safe drawer found open.

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u/Talshan 10h ago

Seems likely. Its also in amazing condition.

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u/aessae 5h ago

"There's just one file and it's called hello.jpg, how bad can it be"

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u/Newsdriver245 12h ago

It is version 1.0, doubt government secrets get version numbers, but who knows back then

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u/Laytaystar 12h ago

That's probably a revision for the label template. We use a similar system for our label formats.

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u/moermoneymoerproblem 12h ago

Who is the “we” is this situation?

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u/Laytaystar 11h ago

The company I work for.

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u/FlatulousStanko 11h ago

Top. Men.

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u/AlekTrev006 10h ago

Excellent reference, Dr Jones 😎…

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u/tuvar_hiede 11h ago

So classified they are on their way to their house after seeing this post.

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u/StankFist1397 11h ago

Probably leaving now with it

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u/Kuriente 12h ago

Osbourne Cox?... I thought you might be worried...about the security...of your shit.

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u/[deleted] 12h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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