U.S. Executives Leery Of Y2K Bug - Pol

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U.S. Executives Leery Of Y2K Bug - Poll

Updated 11:06 AM ET October 6, 1999

ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) - The Y2K bug may not be a catastrophic threat but most executives responsible for corporate Y2K planning will stockpile cash and stay off airplanes at year's end just in case, according to a poll released Wednesday.

The survey of chief information officers -- the executives responsible for their companies' Y2K readiness -- found no widespread panic but some serious concerns about preparations for the New Year, said Abbie Lundberg, editor in chief of CIO magazine, which conducted the poll.

"What's interesting is that at the same time their confidence has been rising, so has the number that have indicated they're going to stock up and have some extra cash on hand," Lundberg said. "I think people have gotten away from the possibility of a major disruption but they feel that there may be lots of minor problems."

The Y2K bug arose from the practice of computer programmers many years ago using only two digits to denote the year. As a result, computers may malfunction if they misinterpret 00 as 1900 instead of 2000.

The poll of 191 CIOs in the public and private sectors, conducted Monday at a conference in Orlando, found that 63 percent of the executives had confidence that the Y2K bug would be fixed by the end of the year, while 30 percent were not confident.

A majority of executives planned to make preparations for an emergency. Sixty-five percent said they would have more than $500 in cash on hand, 34 percent said they would keep over $1,000, and 8 percent planned to have more than $5,000.

Eight percent of the executives said they would pull money out of banks and investments and keep it at home if it became apparent that financial institutions had not solved their Y2K issues by Jan. 1.

Eighty percent planned to keep printouts of financial records, 25 percent would stockpile canned goods and 33 percent would stockpile water.

Fifty-three percent said they would not fly on a commercial airplane on Jan. 1, the poll found, while 74 percent said the Federal Aviation Administration should ground all air carriers that failed to respond to an FAA survey on Y2K readiness.

"It's not that planes are going to fall out of the sky, but with all the computer systems needed to make air traffic work ... there's a lot of technology involved in moving people," Lundberg said. "If you don't have to travel, I wouldn't."

The poll, which surveyed executives of governments, insurance and financial institutions, manufacturers, technology companies and others, had a margin of error of plus or minus seven percentage points, Lundberg said.

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Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), October 06, 1999


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