Russia launches millennium bug campaign

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MOSCOW (July 28, 1998 10:40 a.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - Russia sought to tackle its "millennium bug" computer problem Tuesday, warning that the overhaul of computer systems needed to avert a potential catastrophe come 2000 could cost $500 million.

Alexander Krupnov, head of the state communications commission, said if left unresolved the computer bug could trigger a collapse of banking, telecommunications, energy and key national defense systems.

At the launch of a nationwide public awareness campaign Krupnov said his committee had drawn up an action plan aimed at setting priorities and offering firms and state administrations a simple step-by-step guide to tackling the problem.

"With the arrival of the third millennium, computer networks which play an important role in the nation's infrastructure are threatened by disruption," said Krupnov.

"Experts say that the overall cost for Russia to resolve this problem could be around $500 million, and for the entire world $600 billion," he said.

Widespread computer failures are feared in 2000 because computer codes in many systems are written so that dates ending in "00" will be interpreted as the year 1900, leading to potentially crippling errors in logic.

The state communications commission earlier this year completed an inventory of state bodies to see how Russia was prepared for 2000, Krupnov added.

The Pentagon said last month that it was worried that U.S. and Russian early warning systems could start going haywire in 2000, raising the risks of misunderstandings between nuclear superpowers.

Western experts say computer failures could prompt Russia's nuclear power stations to shut down as safety mechanisms were tripped, but believe a Chernobyl-style disaster is unlikely.

However, nobody knows how embedded chips in pipeline valves, road traffic light and air traffic control systems will react, they said, leaving open a massive potential for disasters.