The Guardian — August 8, 2017 SAVINGS: BA would have saved £80m if no IT failure SAVINGS: Public Health Service would have avoided operations being cancelled, ambulances being diverted and patient records being made unavailable WHY I LIKE THIS: preventative bug hunting initiative
Category Archives: Software bugs in the press
Irish vet’s English fails Australian computer visa test
BBC News — August 8, 2017 ROOT CAUSE: caused by flaws in the voice-recognition technology ROOT CAUSE: The company said “there was no problems with its system” ROOT CAUSE: company said “possible interference” caused by construction work outside the centre AFFECTED: applying for a more expensive spouse visa
Airport software failure in AU’s major cities – what needs to be done?
IT Brief Australia — May 23, 2017 ROOT CAUSE: caused by a major telecom failure of a top provider in the data center in the UK IMPACT: airports in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane all experienced major delays due to a software outage
Woolworths says technical glitch caused customers to be charged twice
The Guardian — August 7, 2017 ROOT CAUSE: a technical glitch IMPACT: some customers were charged twice for the same purchase
Mumbai: Technical glitch delays flight; passengers made to sit for 3 hrs without AC
The Asian – August 6, 2017 IMPACT: During this period, all the passengers remained seated … air conditioning was not working for at least one and a half hours of the wait time ROOT CAUSE: a technical glitch in the Boeing 777 plane
Subtle manipulation of street signs can fool self-driving cars, researchers report
SC Magazine – August 7, 2017 AFFECTED: potentially causing accidents by causing the cars to mistake one type of sign for another ROOT CAUSE: applying a malicious overlay to a regulation STOP sign, academic researchers tricked self-driving cars into thinking it was actually a Speed Limit 45 sign
Centrelink sends welfare recipients fraud warning via text message
The Guardian – August 9, 2017 ROOT CAUSE: the system was error-prone and needed to be redesigned AFFECTED: 217,403 letters were sent between July and December last year to welfare recipients, 36,305 of which did not result in a debt IMPACT: the letters described as intimidating and confusing
Opodo charges for its own mistakes
The Guardian – August 12, 2017 AFFECTED: Customers who booked flights via the website IMPACT: their surname has been entered twice on the confirmation and Opodo wants a hefty sum to amend it ROOT CAUSE: A technical error
Comm Bank scandal: what happens when too much power is placed in too few hands
The Guardian – August 9, 2017 ROOT CAUSE: a computer coding error AFFECTED: they broke the law 50,000 times AFFECTED: having forgotten – on 53,506 separate occasions – to notify regulators of large cash transactions COST: the potential $1tn fine it could now face
Computer meltdown plunged Police Scotland into chaos and left some officers unable to call for backup
The Scottish Sun – July 16, 2017 AFFECTED: left some officers unable to call for backup ROOT CAUSE: a computer crash WORKAROUND: Workers in the nerve centre were forced to use hand-held radios to communicate with beat officers