Re:Prison. Bankruptcy. Suicide. How a software glitch ruined...
by inglor_cz on Tuesday January 16, 2024 @02:20PM
(#39017681)
This is a somewhat Sith-like dealing with absolutes.
Laypeople generally understand that software may crap the bed in the sense of "the system is down, please wait, then try again". But few people have experienced subtle changes in stored data.
A judge looking into his document cloud may be ready to see a "sorry, not available right now" notice, but doesn't expect that some sinister program is, in the background, silently editing texts of his judgments and pronouncing people guilty when he intended to free them etc.
The problem with the Horizon scandal is in this sinister manipulation of data. It may also have been done by Fujitsu people themselves, in order to cover some tracks and tamper with evidence. This is a very untypical failure mode.
Laypeople generally understand that software may crap the bed in the sense of "the system is down, please wait, then try again". But few people have experienced subtle changes in stored data.
A judge looking into his document cloud may be ready to see a "sorry, not available right now" notice, but doesn't expect that some sinister program is, in the background, silently editing texts of his judgments and pronouncing people guilty when he intended to free them etc.
The problem with the Horizon scandal is in this sinister manipulation of data. It may also have been done by Fujitsu people themselves, in order to cover some tracks and tamper with evidence. This is a very untypical failure mode.