Businesses Still Feeling Sting From Y2K Bug: An increasing number of glitches are surfacing, though most are termed insignificant

By Larry Greenemeier

http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printArticle?article=infoweek/768/y2k.htm&pub=iwk

The Y2K bug refuses to go away without a fight. An increasing number of system glitches surfaced as last week wound down. About 30% of people surveyed by InformationWeek Research say they had experienced Y2K-related computer problems by the end of the week, up from 10% a few days earlier.

One in four IT professionals say their companies have suffered Y2K-related problems since New Year's Eve, according to the survey of 3,243 respondents, including 2,083 IT professionals. And while most of the glitches were termed insignificant, about 16% caused brief service interruptions and 4% caused significant interruptions. The problems included incorrectly displayed dates, prematurely expired passwords, and noncompliant date fields that halted non-critical applications.

Laura Betterly, president and co-founder of music Web site Visiosonic Ltd. in Clearwater, Fla., was alerted to her company's Y2K problems on New Year's Day when she went to use the PHAT MP3 player on the company's site. Instead of music, Betterly was greeted with a "dynamic linked library" file error message, indicating .wav sound files weren't being converted to the MP3 format because the software had expired. Visiosonic's in-house development team fixed the code that day, posted a fix to the site, and E-mailed the fix to more than 100,000 customers.

There were other Y2K-related problems. Microsoft experienced glitches that caused erroneous date displays on its Internet Explorer browser and Hotmail E-mail program. And although the U.S. government escaped major system woes, an Energy Department nuclear weapons plant in Tennessee was temporarily unable to exchange data with the department's headquarters.

The good news is that no major Y2K-related outages were reported worldwide. But that doesn't mean IT managers are done with their Y2K work. Nearly 25% of respondents say they have further Y2K remediation to perform on noncritical date fields that display inaccurate dates but don't affect the program itself. Most of that work will be quick-69% say they'll be finished within 30 days. IT managers also say they'll continue to watch systems to make sure they perform properly on month- and quarter-end cycles. Another concern, says Jim Porter, a partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers, is ensuring that systems recognize the extra day in February resulting from leap year.

Businesses plan to continue monitoring their supply chains. Nearly half of those surveyed say it's too early to tell if their customers, suppliers, and partners experienced Y2K problems; 10% say they've already experienced problems with their company's supply chain or extranet.

Although concerns arose before New Year's weekend that Y2K would encourage hackers to take advantage of the date changeover, just 2% of respondents experienced unauthorized system breaches. "We were skeptical as to how prepared people would be," says Jerry Brady, VP of security-management applications for Internet Security Systems, a provider of Internet security-management applications and services. "While hacker volume continues to grow in general, we were surprised to see a low number of probes and actual hacks." Brady attributes the low volume of Y2K hacker activity to the heightened level of security around most IT systems

With most companies reporting surprisingly pleasant Y2K experiences, 25% of respondents say they devoted too much money to the problem. Businesses and governments worldwide have spent $300 billion to $600 billion on Y2K fixes, according to Gartner Group.

But 75% said the amount devoted to Y2K remediation was justified. Given the alternative to a successful Y2K rollover, Brendan Myers wouldn't change his company's actions. "It sounds melodramatic, but the future of our organization was at stake," says Myers, manager of network and support services for Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston.

Many businesses ended up with additional benefits from their Y2K efforts, such as replacing antiquated equipment and software. The year 2000 work also helped companies review internal processes and partner or customer relationships. "In addition to preparing for the Y2K event itself," says Laura Gregory, a senior VP with Visa International Inc., "Visa improved the way it tests its IT systems and improved its relationships with its member banks."

Asked if he thought that Y2K preparations reached the level of "overkill," PricewaterhouseCoopers' Porter says it's not possible to overprepare for an event of Y2K's magnitude.

-- Jennifer Bunker (jen@bunkergroup.com), January 18, 2000