-
- (Note -
Although the story doesn't say, it seems
logical these machines were
considered compliant months ago, given the
hundreds of billions spent
early on to assure the banking and credit card
industry would have no
serious interruptions of service.)
-
-
- Retailers have been hit by the first major strike of
the
Millennium Bug as thousands of credit card swipe machines failed.
-
- The machines did not
recognise the year 2000 date.
-
- Mainly smaller shops starting up after the four-day
Christmas
break were affected by the glitch in equipment supplied by
HSBC, one of
the UK's big four banks.
-
- The Government's bug-busting
unit Action 2000 said the
problem was a result of the bug.
-
- But it stressed
credit card transactions could still
be processed through the machines
and said no "material disruption"
had been caused.
-
- The first warning
signs of potential bug problems came
on the same day that the
Government launched its official bug-tracking
website to monitor
developments both in the UK and overseas.
-
- A spokeswoman said:
"Action 2000 has always said
that minor problems are inevitable in
a project of this scope and will
not be restricted to December
31."
-
- A spokesman for HSBC, formerly known as Midland Bank,
said:
"The problem has arisen because these new swipe card terminals,
installed in the summer, have a look-ahead facility spanning four working
days.
-
- "When they looked ahead and compared, say, December
28
1999 with January 1 2000 they thought something was wrong and failed
to
function because they read the second date as January 1 1900.
-
- "This problem
will disappear when we get to January
1 because the terminals will be
comparing January 1 2000 with January 5
2000 - both in the same year -
and will see no problem with that."
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