Social Impacts of Information Technology

SOCIAL IMPACTS OF
INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY
Running Head: Social Impacts of Information Technology

Social Impacts of Information Technology
Contents
INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................... 2
AFFECTED INDUSTRIES DUE TO Y2K BUG.................................................................3
1. Financial and Banking Industry.............................................................................3
2. Education Industry............................................................................................. 4
3. Telecommunication Industry................................................................................ 4
4. Medical Sector/ Healthcare Sector..........................................................................4
5. Power & Utilities Sector...................................................................................... 5
6. Effect on Software Industry.................................................................................. 5
7. Transportation Sector.......................................................................................... 6
FINANCIAL IMPACT & ECONOMIC IMPACT OF Y2K BUG............................................7
SOCIAL IMPACT OF Y2K BUG................................................................................... 8
RESOLUTION OF Y2K BUG ISSUE..............................................................................9
FUTURE AFTER THE RESOLUTION OF Y2K BUG.......................................................12
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Social Impacts of Information Technology
INTRODUCTION
Y2K bug stands for “Year 2000 Bug” which is popularly known as Millennium-bug. It was
an issue that was thought to build havoc in the computer-networks in the year 2000 due to
default in coding system of computers. After this projection, every sectors and companies
started to prepare seriously for dealing with this problem. There were few serious failures
occurred due to Y2K bug from 31st December, 1999 to 1st January, 2000. Earlier,
programmers were of the view that with time all the companies would update their hardware
and software that would ultimately update the format of date which were in use from long.
However, this did not happen and the whole world got scared of the possible consequences
that could happen in the year 2000. This Y2K issue has the capability to destroy the entire
world. Therefore, proper measures were being taken by the whole world to tackle with the
potential problem that could arise in future. Government of every nation was spending a huge
sum of money to update their computer systems and whole networks. Many were of the view
that it could lead to launch of missiles as soon as we enter in the new year 2000.
In early days when computers were designed, 4-digits year were shortened to 2-digits while
writing the computer programs with an objective to save cost and space related to the storage
of data. For instance, the program was designed in such a way that computer recognised
‘1998’ as ‘98’. However, when the century changed then computer was unable to recognise
‘00’ as ‘2000’. Rather, it started to recognise ‘00’ as ‘1900’ (National Geographic, n.d.).
There were many who thought that in absence of the required program upgradation,
computers would start displaying wrong date from 1st January, 2000 as a result the
companies’ operation would be severely affected. There were many programs which were
designed to forecast figures of debt and budgets. However, in the year 1999 it failed to
forecast debt and budget figures for the year 2000. Additionally, there were few software
which forget to consider 2000 as a leap year.
Therefore, companies were scared that such issues in programming would lead the important
software and hardware to fail. This could have ultimately affected the operations of some
essential services such as banks, police records, utilities-systems, insurance companies etc.
(Britannica, n.d.).
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Social Impacts of Information Technology
AFFECTED INDUSTRIES DUE TO Y2K BUG
1. Financial and Banking Industry
Financial Sector and banking sector are always considered to be bank-bone of any
economy. Any minor problem can change the entire shape of an economy. The famous
Y2K bug also seemed to affect the banking and financial sectors of few economies.
Financial and banking sectors were seemed to be quite affected due to Y2K bug. There
was a man in Germany who suddenly became the owner of six million dollars. His
bank account got credited with the same amount and transaction was dated as 30 th
December, 1899 instead of 1st January, 2000. Y2K bug was held responsible for such
an activity. However, this German person remained millionaire only by the time this
default remained unidentified and later $6million got debited from his account
(Serafino, 2019).
Companies and banks dealing in credit cards also faced problem. There were two
credit card companies dealing nationally and one local bank who found issues in their
software. As a result, the software displayed their customers and suppliers failed to
upgrade and are also not compliant to the policies.
The popular bank of Washington named Chevy Chase also faced problem due to Y2K
bug. The online customers of Chevy Chase bank faced aa lot of problem while using
the two versions of Windows namely Quicken 99 and Quicken 2000 (Hedgpeth, 2000).
Queensland bank situated in Cairns; Australia was also affected by Y2K bug. The
card-readers on POS machines were facing issues due to this bug. The transactions
carried on the credit cards as well as debit cards were not being accepted as these
cards were being displayed as expired due to defaults in date created by Y2K (Saran,
2010).
Federal Reserve Bank situated in Chicago also got caught by the Y2K bug. The bank
faced issue in transferring tax payments amounted to $700000.
CyberCash Inc.was a software which verifies the transactions done over the credit cards and
due to Y2K bug, it was facing a problem in its operation. There were many vendors and
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