Yesterday, the United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM) posted on its official Twitter feed the computer cipher message: “;l;;gmlxzssaw". Nearly 8-hours later, STRATCOM posted another message below it stating: “Apologies for any confusion…Please disregard this post”.

I don't know if this is true (and I read it on an extremely unreliable site); Regarding the message “;l;;gmlxzssaw”, the cipher may be a character encoding using ASCII whose true message is “059 108 059 059 103 109 108 120 122 115 115 097 119 013 010” as confirmed by ASCII to Text Conversion and verified by Decimal To Text analysis. The site claims it is a valid launch code (58-years out of date, only valid during Cold War year 1963) authorizing the Francis E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne-Wyoming to release a single SM-65 Atlas Intercontinental Ballistic Missile containing a W49 Thermonuclear Warhead—whose directed release-to-target is Washington D.C..

The American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) was published as ASA X3.4 in 1963—uses a 7-bit binary code to represent text and other characters within computers, communications equipment, and other devices. It was based on the earlier teleprinter encoding systems and was actually designed for use with teletypes. One of the first users of ASCII encoding was the IBM AN/FSQ-31 SAC Data Processing System, which was the United States Air Force command, control, and coordination system for the Cold War nuclear weapon holding Strategic Air Command (SAC). It was likewise used in the ITT 465L Strategic Air Command Control System, which was the network of computer and communication systems for command and control of Strategic Air Command combat aircraft, refueling tankers, ballistic missiles as well as the Cold War era IBM 4020 Military Computer. These all received ASCII encoded nuclear weapon launch orders through the United States Air Force’s first high-speed data communications network Automatic Digital Network (AUTODIN) deployed in 1962.

I don't know if any of this is true... and as I said, the site I got it from is extremely unreliable. However, it does make one question. Incidentally, the SM-65 Atlas Missiles were removed from service in 1965 (or thereabout). The W49 warhead was replaced in 1963... so none of those things even exist now.