6 - 12 January 2000

Y2K bug fails to bite... but it's not over

by David Kelleher

The worst is over but the Y2K computer bug is far from beaten. The doomsday scenario that many believed would occur during the rollover on 1 January failed to materialise. Planes did not drop from the sky, nuclear bombs did not leave their silos and electricity plants continued functioning as normal.

Yet despite the fact that many have described the Y2K as a hoax, it is quite clear that the bug does really exist. That the issue was over-hyped and some people took advantage of the situation to make a profit is another matter.

The problem exists and with just five days into the new year, countries have been reporting a number of failures due to the bug. Small as they are, the fact remains that they are related to a programming decision taken in the 1970s.

Malta has fared relatively well, with few glitches reported over the past few days. The main problems faced by local businesses were due to mistakes registered by point-of-sales, a UPS system that keep on shutting down the main servers, equipment not recognising the date at 2000 and other minor details.

All this is good news. The task-force set up by the government to oversee the Y2K problem carried out sterling work in creating greater awareness. Granted that many government entities and corporations did not respond to Challenge 2000 calls for information but preferred to do it alone, the task force focused on another important sector of the economy: small-to-medium sized businesses. It is here that most of the Y2K problems were and still are expected to originate. There is still a lot of scepticism among the business community about the whole Y2K issue. The fact that nothing serious happened over the new year has maybe given businesses more reason to be confident and disregard warnings as another marketing ploy by the computer industry to make more money. To a certain extent they may be correct, but one must wait until the end of the month when salaries are calculated, when invoices are sent out or else stock-taking is completed.

It is perhaps too early to start crying "victory" over the worst affliction to hit modern technology. The first battle may have been won, but there is still a chance the bug might return with a vengeance. Just like any virus, it may be dormant, waiting for complacency on the host's part before wreaking havoc.

Experts around the world continue to issue warnings that complacency now will only give the bug a chance to strike. According to the National Command Centre Y2K "issues could take some time to show up. Therefore, we must all continue to be vigilant during the next several days. With immediate worries apparently over, only time will tell what the final impact of the Y2K will be.

"If the incident-free pattern continues, the story of the Y2K bug is likely to be played out over several weeks rather than on a single night. So the first hours of the millennium will be the beginning, not the end of the millennium bug.

According to the latest reports from the National Command Centre, there were no further problems reported in Malta, although it stressed that its main function was to monitor critical organisations and not small entities.

On a global scale, reports of Y2K-related glitches continue to roll in as more date-reliant systems fail to recognise dates. In China, a small number of banks experienced problems with internal email and credit card systems. Strangely, the first real Y2K glitch of significance occurred in Sacramento, US. Some 500 members of the Golden 1 Credit Union discovered that their ATM cards did not work at grocery stores and outlets that take ATM cards. The cards worked fine at the ATM.

The first Air Traffic Control problems were reported in New Zealand. For three hours ATC had to use a back up systems to guide aircraft to their destinations. The problem resulted because the radar systems refused to communicate with each other.

Planes may not have fallen out of the sky, nor did nuclear warheads explode on their own accord, but the Y2K did play tricks on the dates featured on websites. The following are a few examples.