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State seen unprepared for 2000 bug
Study: Most agencies have no computer protections
By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff, 02/04/98
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Only 27 percent of state computer system managers have begun to plan
their strategy for dealing with
the problem.
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he year 2000 is less than 23 months away, but many Massachusetts state
agencies are acting as if the millennium were still the stuff of science
fiction.
Private corporations are spending billions to protect their computer
systems from the notorious ''millennium bug.'' But a new survey finds
that state agencies have done little to fix the problem, which could
make their computers malfunction as Jan. 1, 2000, approaches.
Unless the bureaucrats get busy, many state services will be delivered
badly, or not at all.
The study, prepared by the office of state Auditor A. Joseph DeNucci,
surveyed computer system managers for the state's major agencies. Their
responses came as an unpleasant surprise. As of October, 95 percent of
the managers had not taken steps to protect their systems against the
millennium bug. Only 27 percent have begun to plan their strategy for
dealing with the problem. And 19 percent of those surveyed didn't even
know the problem exists.
''Unless we take some very strong efforts,'' said John Beveridge, deputy
auditor for information technology audits, ''we might be in trouble.''
Beveridge warned of possible malfunctions in computers used for
everything from law enforcement to pollution control, which could lead
to expensive bureaucratic foul-ups or even outright safety hazards.
And all because a few decades ago, computer programmers needed to cut a
few corners.
Computer memory was very expensive in the 1950s and 1960s, when many
major computer systems were designed. So to save on memory, programs
that included date information generally recorded the year as a
two-digit number - 98, say, instead of 1998.
But this practice becomes a major headache when 2000 rolls around. The
computer would see the date as 00 - but that could mean 1900 as well as
2000. The confusion might cause expensive nuisances, such as computers
sending out bills and checks to the wrong people at the wrong times. But
other computers respond to the discrepancy by shutting down entirely.
That would be a disaster in a world where nearly every major enterprise
relies on computers.
Estimates of the cost to repair the bug in all the world's computers
have run as high as $600 billion.
Perry Harris, an analyst at Boston's Yankee Group, said car rental
companies have already been forced to redesign their computer systems
because of the bug. It seems customers with driver's licenses that
expire in 2000 were being rejected.
Harris said that as of autumn, 60 percent of the companies surveyed by
his firm had undertaken some study of the 2000 problem. Though many
firms are behind the curve, he said, the private sector on the whole is
far ahead of Massachusetts state government.
Beveridge said some agencies, particularly the Department of Corrections
and the Department of Revenue, have begun to attack the problem
aggressively in recent months.
But overall, state agencies are behind. The report notes that this slow
response could boost the cost of repairing the problem.
This story ran on page D01 of the Boston Globe on 02/04/98.
c Copyright 1998 Globe Newspaper Company.
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