millennium bug

Informal. a bug that can cause computers or software to misinterpret the first two digits of the year 2000 as 19, due to the coding of dates using only the last two digits of the year.

[1990-95]

* * *

▪ 1999

      When the year 2000 arrived the future could be coloured by the mistakes of the past. Computer programming shortcuts taken as much as 30 years earlier had the potential to produce computer failures that could affect the critical underpinnings of society, such as government services, public utilities, banks, insurance companies, airlines, brokerage firms, telephone companies, and hospitals.

      The reason was that many computer programs (especially those written in the early days of computers) were designed to abbreviate four-digit years as two digits in order to save memory space. These computers could recognize 98 as 1998 but would be unable to recognize 00 as 2000, perhaps interpreting it to mean 1900. This meant that when the clocks struck midnight on Jan. 1, 2000, many affected computers would produce wrong answers or fail to operate properly unless the computers' software was repaired or replaced before that date. Other computer programs that projected budgets or debts into the future could begin malfunctioning in 1999 when they made projections into 2000. In addition, some computer software did not take into account that the year 2000 was a leap year. And even before the dawn of 2000, some computers might fail on Sept. 9, 1999 (9/9/99), because early programmers often used a series of 9s to indicate the end of a program.

      The situation became variously known throughout the world as the "Millennium Bug" (so-called because a programming flaw is generally called a "bug"), the "Millennium Bomb," the "year 2000 problem," or "the Y2K Bug" (so-called because in metric measurements K stands for thousand). Mainframe computers, including those typically used to run insurance companies and banks, were thought to have the most serious Y2K problems, but even newer systems that used networks of desktop computers could be vulnerable.

      The Y2K problem was not limited to computers running conventional software, however. Many devices containing computer chips, ranging from elevators to temperature control systems in commercial buildings to medical equipment, could also be affected. The computer chips in these "embedded systems" also needed to be checked to see whether they were sensitive to calendar dates.

      In the U.S. business and government technology teams were working feverishly to correct the problem as 1998 drew to a close, with a goal of completing their work before the end of December 1999. Programmers with the necessary skills were able to demand ever-rising salaries and other perks. In some cases older programmers were even lured out of retirement. Although some industries were well on the way to solving the Y2K problem, most experts feared that the government was lagging behind. A Y2K preparedness survey commissioned in late 1998 by Cap Gemini America, a New York computer industry consulting firm, showed that among 13 economic sectors studied, government was the least ready for Y2K. Rated highest for preparedness was the software industry, followed by financial services, computer firms, manufacturing companies, telecommunications firms, aerospace companies, oil and gas firms, utility companies, pharmaceutical companies, distribution firms, transportation companies, and health care firms.

      One of the most frequently cited fears associated with Y2K involved electric-power generation. Because the electric power utilities in the U.S. were interconnected, Y2K power-plant failures in one part of the nation conceivably could affect people living elsewhere. In an effort to encourage companies to share critical information about Y2K, Pres. Bill Clinton in October signed the Year 2000 Information and Readiness Disclosure Act. The law was designed to encourage American companies to share Y2K data by offering them limited liability protection for sharing information about Y2K products, methods, and best practices. For example, businesses that shared information in good faith could not be sued if the information later proved to be confusing or misleading, but the new law would provide no protection from liability if a business deliberately lied or sold products that failed because of Y2K.

      In Western Europe the European Commission issued a 25-page report warning that efforts to solve Y2K in many European Union members were insufficient, particularly in terms of the cross-border cooperation needed to be ready by 2000. The British government, with projected costs exceeding $656 million, announced that its armed forces would be prepared in time and would provide assistance to local police if utilities, transportation systems, or emergency services failed. Many other countries, notably Asian nations suffering from the ongoing economic crisis and small or geographically isolated countries, were thought to be less well prepared. It was uncertain how this would affect the tightly integrated world economy and physical infrastructure. In mid-December 1998 the UN convened its first international conference on Y2K in an attempt to share information and crisis-management efforts. Worldwide the year 2000 problem could cost as much as $300 billion to $600 billion, according to the Gartner Group, a Connecticut computer industry market research firm.

STEVE ALEXANDER

* * *