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3 weeks ago
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Our Post Office tried to cover up the consequences of known bugs in its accounting software, defects that made it look like their employees were stealing when they weren’t. This led to unjustified prison sentences and even suicides by those falsely accused of fraud—but apparently other arms of our government haven’t learnt the relevant lessons.
The BBC reports that the UK court system has been trying to cover up a technology error that can hide or delete evidence on a system that judges and lawyers use every day in court. His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service says everything’s fixed now and we don’t need to worry, but that’s not terrifically reassuring when there’s such a lengthy history of opacity in IT.
We’ve known for a long time that “many eyes make bugs shallow”, which is why almost every piece of software you use contains huge amounts of “open source” code that anyone can read and fix, including the browser where you’re reading this and the wifi router that brought it to you. Those who try to hide the inevitable faults in their software don’t just embarrass themselves when the problems finally surface—they actually make it harder to fix the issue.
Are you highlighting the gremlins in your systems, or trying to make it look like they’re somebody else’s problem?
