ICBM Address

What Does ICBM Address Mean?

The phrase “ICBM address” in IT refers to a specific type of
address or signature used in the USENET newsgroups forums of the 1980s and
1990s. Because of a project called the USENET mapping project, USENET addresses
included areas for geopositioning information (longitude and latitude) in order
to pioneer some early digital geolocation systems predating modern GIS.

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Techopedia Explains ICBM Address

Because the 1980s and 1990s were also part of the Cold War
era, the geolocation of the USENET addresses used for the USENET mapping
project were sometimes referred to as “ICBM addresses” in reference to Soviet
long-range missiles. But experts point out that an address used for missile
delivery would need additional locating information. Since the decline of
USENET over the 1990s, “ICBM address” is now a neat bit of cold war arcana.

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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…