y2k

Though many new technological innovations occurred during the 1990s, many were not without numerous failures and errors. The arguably most prevalent computer disaster, however, was during the turn of the century, which was also called the Y2K or Year 2000 bug.

In most computer systems today, the year can be seen abbreviated to the last two digits. For example, right now would be 20. This was also done with early on computers in order to optimize storage. However, in order to do this, they completely cut out the first two digits. Thus, when given a year such as 00, the computer doesn’t understand whether the year is 2000 or 1900.

Many feared how this bug would affect computers, especially in spheres such as the stock market, which could model incorrect debts, budgets, etc as well as records management. For example, in the case of calculating interest, many feared that a transition from 1999 to 1900 would model interest backward for 100 years. Another software issue that developers had failed to consider was that the year 2000 was also a leap year, which had not been properly coded into software. Time tracking in industries such as transportation was also at risk, as airports feared that the bug could destroy plane scheduling and lead to potential disaster. The majority of these systems, known as mainframe computers, were most at risk and had the potential of causing widespread chaos following the turn of the decade.

Luckily, this issue was uncovered before the actual incident occurred, but many technology firms now solely focused on this issue, hoping to prevent any potential disaster. In 1998, Clinton signed the Year 2000 Information and Readiness Disclosure Act, which asked major software companies to share methods of dealing with Y2K so they could be widely adopted. The most straightforward and simple approach was expanding the two-digit value to a four-digit year, which would be able to differentiate 1900 and 2000. In all, over $100 billion was spent on the crisis by the US alone.

Following the issue, there were very few actual issues that had occurred. In Japan, radiation technology in a nuclear plant failed but was supported by backup systems. The US also received alerts of a missile launch from Russia, though it was a preemptive message that was predicted to occur in the future. Furthermore, the lack of development following Y2K also led to a public split, those who believed that the government had wasted money on an exaggerated issue, and those who believed the government provided an appropriate response to cover the issue.

https://time.com/5752129/y2k-bug-history/
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/Y2K-bug/
https://www.britannica.com/technology/Y2K-bug
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-was-the-y2k-scare.html