Technical advancement and computerization is present in every part of social sphere. Banking and stock market, medicine, scientific researches and defense of the country depend on data and result created by computer processing of data.
Software and programs that help us and make our lives easier have become our everyday life, and we cannot imagine life without them. However, how much can we rely on them and trust them? What if they are wrong and how costly can that be?
10THE GREAT NORTHEASTBLACKOUT (2003)
The worst power outage in U.S. history occurred when an alarm system failed. 50 million people were left without power, resulting in 11 deaths and costing 6 billion dollar.
09HONDA (2011)
Honda was forced to recall2.5 million cars to bad coding. Issues included airbags being deployed with too much pressure and the wrong gear being selected.
08GOOGLE (2009)
Accidentally pressing ‘backslash’ a programmer made all URLs accessed via Google appear as malware. Anyone using Google couldn’t access any website for an hour, leading to 2-3 million in lost advertising revenue.
07JURY SERVICE (2012)
A Californian courthouse computer mistakenly summoned 1.200 people for jury duty. Turning up for 8am meant a traffic jam that ground the interstate to a halt.
06PEPSI (1992)
A computer glitch meant that 800.000 Filipinos had caps with the winning no ‘349’, making them millionaires. When Pepsi stated they wouldn’t pay out, riots followed.
05WORLD OF WARCRAFT (2005)
When developers released the ‘Corrupted Blood’ disease, it unexpectedly went viral, passing from player to player. Thousands were affected, with the bodies lining virtual towns.
04ST. MARY’S MERCY (2012)
A coding error saw 8.500 patients being incorrectly declared dead. Patients were sent bills saying they were dead, and the Social Security office and insurance companies were notified.
03THERAC-25 (1985 - 87)
Therac-25 was a radiation therapy machine used to help cure cancer. Due to bad software design, it gave patients 100x the intended dose of resulting in six deaths.
02KNIGHT CAPITAL GROUP (2012)
Newly installed software caused millions of faulty trades to be processed. The financial service firm was on the brink of bankruptcy, losing 440 million dollar in 30 minutes.
01WORLD WAR III (1979)
U.S. system detected a mass Soviet missile launch, leading to the preparation of a retaliatory attack. Satellites showed that it was a false alarm, as a technician had accidentally run a simulation program.
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