During this year's World Cup, the city of Berlin found out why you need support contracts for complex software...
The dangers of not having support contracts for vital pieces of software were clearly demonstrated in Berlin during the recent World Cup. The central traffic computer lost touch with the traffic system in the Berlin tunnel at about 1.00 am in the morning. A technician was woken up, but he pointed out that the city had, in an effort to save money, not signed a support agreement, so he was not on call. So he went back to sleep!
Then there was an accident in the tunnel and the car involved caught fire (the fire wasn't serious, and the driver was shaken but OK). Sensors in the tunnel closed the tunnel, or tried to. Since one of the gates didn't close, because it had been damaged in an earlier accident, the system went into failsafe mode and turned all the traffic lights red!
To make matters worse the system then refused to budge from failsafe mode...
Eventually, the technician agreed to come in and sort the mess out. He cut the Gordian knot by slicing through cabling to force the traffic lights on major streets to cold start. I don't know how much he charged them for this low tech solution - but I bet it cost a pretty penny.
[Source: Risks Bulletin 24.34]
And while we are using Risks Bulletin here are some interesting figures of comparative corporate risks:
1 in 6 chances of a laptop or PDA being stolen
4 in 5 data files are stored unencrypted
2 in 3 data files are transferred unencrypted
1 in 2 companies allow users to install whatever they one on corporate desktops
1 in 5 suffered data or network sabotage
1 in 4 do not know if their computers have been illegally accessed
2 in 5 don't keep a log of computer security incidents
9 in 10 suffered a computer security incident during the last year
And all enterprises have some software installed on desk tops that the IT staff don't know about and would not approve of if they did know!
Makes you think, doesn't it...
[Source: Risks Bulletin 24.35]
Then there was an accident in the tunnel and the car involved caught fire (the fire wasn't serious, and the driver was shaken but OK). Sensors in the tunnel closed the tunnel, or tried to. Since one of the gates didn't close, because it had been damaged in an earlier accident, the system went into failsafe mode and turned all the traffic lights red!
To make matters worse the system then refused to budge from failsafe mode...
Eventually, the technician agreed to come in and sort the mess out. He cut the Gordian knot by slicing through cabling to force the traffic lights on major streets to cold start. I don't know how much he charged them for this low tech solution - but I bet it cost a pretty penny.
[Source: Risks Bulletin 24.34]
And while we are using Risks Bulletin here are some interesting figures of comparative corporate risks:
1 in 6 chances of a laptop or PDA being stolen
4 in 5 data files are stored unencrypted
2 in 3 data files are transferred unencrypted
1 in 2 companies allow users to install whatever they one on corporate desktops
1 in 5 suffered data or network sabotage
1 in 4 do not know if their computers have been illegally accessed
2 in 5 don't keep a log of computer security incidents
9 in 10 suffered a computer security incident during the last year
And all enterprises have some software installed on desk tops that the IT staff don't know about and would not approve of if they did know!
Makes you think, doesn't it...
[Source: Risks Bulletin 24.35]