Brydon Dewitt Jared Schmidt
Brydon Dewitt Jared Schmidt
Brydon Dewitt Jared Schmidt
Jared Schmidt
• Types of errors and failures
• Examples of failures
• Causes of system failures
• Laws and regulations
• Professional responsibility
• Risks
Risk vs. Reward
What is acceptable?
Who should make such determinations?
1. Cause
2. Seriousness of effects
o Individual vs large scale effects
3. Application area
o Safety-critical applications (e.g. Hospital machines)
Errors with billing systems
• One IL couple was billed for $68 billion in tax
penalties because the IRS generated erroneous bills
after modifying its billing program.
• Inaccurate and misinterpreted database
information
• Mistakenly being on the federally sex offender list
because you live somewhere where a sex offender
previously lived
Y2K Problem
• Two-digit representation of year caused errors in
many systems
o $308 billion spent worldwide ($416 billion in 2012 USD)
Military, power plant, aircraft, medical
applications
Between 1988-1993, four A320s crashed.
o Too much confidence in “fly-by-wire” autopilot program
Traffic control systems
o Must work in real time
o Many different devices and systems working together
Computer systems fail for two general reasons: