The article below brought up as aspect of remediation work that I hadn't thought of, and, it seems, few others have. Posts on another forum yielded no direct answers, and it does apply to the EU industry, so I'll ask here.

The article discusses millennium viruses that sometimes turn up during y2k testing. Does anyone know if this is a common occurrance that no one is talking about, or is it rare? Is it a valid concern?

Article at:

http://www.dallasnews.com/technology-nf/techbiz404.htm

-- Anonymous, March 17, 1999

Answers

Good catch, LP, I hadn't thought about a millenium virus. This would be a desktop PC issue, not an embedded system issue. MMI interfaces that use a PC would likely not have a virus due to the controlled access and usage. Haven't seen it though... I believe much more common "gotcha"s are the myriad other things that can go wrong just by moving the date up - software with expiration dates expire, historical data gets skewed, file dates cause problems with apps that use them when you go forward, then back...

Bottom line is that you have to know, or have someone who knows, the device or application and develop a sound test plan.

Regards, FactFinder

-- Anonymous, March 26, 1999

..."I hadn't thought about a millenium virus."

I hadn't, either, until I came across that article. I think you're right about its being a PC issue. I doubt that it would apply much to mainframe remediation work, either, and it doesn't quite qualify as an embedded system issue, either. IOW, another angle of the problem to deal with. I believe you're right on all counts.

And I also agree that the "secret" to successful remediation is a sound test plan, as you suggest. It's always the thing you didn't test for that gets you. Or at least it seems that way.

I asked this question on another forum some time ago, but got no answers. Didn't even get any speculation or chit-chat about the concept, which I found unusual for that forum. I note, however, that a similar question has just been raised at that forum, so it seems as if the possibility is beginning to move to the forefront of peoples' minds.

Watch and wait, I suppose.

LP

-- Anonymous, March 30, 1999