The devastating IT glitch which has caused chaos across the world is being compared to the Y2K bug that was expected to wreak havoc with computer systems at the turn of the millennium.
Troy Hunt, a prominent security consultant, predicted that today’s event ‘will be the largest IT outage in history’ in a social media post early on Friday.
He added: ‘This is basically what we were all worried about with Y2K, except it’s actually happened this time.’
For the benefit of Gen Z and Alpha – what’s Troy talking about?
Worries grew in the late 90s of a clash between the ushering in of the year 2000 and the two-digit year format preferred by programmers to save on computer memory.
It was feared that when 99 turned to 00, the year might be interpreted as 1900 rather than 2000, sending all sectors relying on IT systems into a tailspin.
Y2K would see planes ‘fall from the sky’
As with today’s outage, transport was deemed to be a particular risk, with airlines and trains reliant on the correct time and date to function properly.
Many feared that the millennium bug would cause planes to fall out of the sky. And while, fortunately, that hasn’t happened today, many planes across the globe have been grounded as a result of the technology failure.
Check-in systems at airports have experienced problems and planes operated by several US airlines were ordered to stay in the air.
Rail travel has also been affected, with a spokesperson from Rail Delivery Group saying: ‘Train operators have been affected by ongoing global IT issues which may result in short notice service changes and cancellations, also impacting real-time information screens and services at stations.’
Y2K was responsible for NHS failures
The millennium bug really did cause serious issues for the NHS, after a related computer error led to incorrect Down’s syndrome test results being sent to 154 pregnant women.
It was one of the most serious effects of the bug, resulting two terminations carried out as a direct result of the mistaken test reports.
Meanwhile, in 2024 the Microsoft outage has thrown NHS surgeries into chaos, leading to problems accessing patients’ records and booking appointments, while pharmacies are struggling to access prescriptions.
The NHS has advised patients to still attend appointments unless advised otherwise.
Card payments failed around the world
Some bank customers received bills for 100 years worth of interest and many credit card systems and cash machines failed when January 2000 rolled around.
Software engineering and cybersecurity expert Martyn Thomas explained in The Guardian that Visa asked member banks to stop issuing cards with 00 expiry dates, because 10% of Visa credit-card machines couldn’t handle cards that expired after 1999.
The Microsoft outage has seen issues reported with Visa too, as well as NatWest, HSBC, Santander and Lloyds Bank.
Some bankers at JP Morgan were unable to log on to their systems, and the London Stock Exchange said there were problems with its news service.
At the more serious end, the Y2K bug caused fears around things like power plants, and what could potentially happen in a worst case scenario in which the computers controlling radiation levels failed.
But as the smoke from the fireworks cleared and the year 2000 became a few days old with no hint of any tech apocalypse, the Y2K bug quickly morphed into a punchline.
It was instead viewed as a hoax or some kind of end of the world cult.
But there were tangible benefits, with many companies carrying out updates on their computer systems as a result of the fears.
And despite the Y2K catastrophe not coming to pass, those who worked on projects warning the public of the potential consequences still felt they did the right thing.
Looking back on the Y2K bug a decade ago, Gwynneth Flower, managing director of the Action 2000 group set up to ensure machines were ‘year 2000 compliant’, said: ‘We achieved our aim.
‘There were a few eccentrics. One woman virtually moved her whole family to a remote house in Scotland, with water only from a well at the bottom of the garden, because she thought it would be Armageddon.’
But as irony would have it, it was a software update that caused the global IT chaos of today. Cyber security company CrowdStrike are responsible, with the outage caused by a ‘defect found in a single content update for Windows’.
The company has since rolled back the update. But that does not fix those computers that have already been affected by the problems.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
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