Newsgroup: comp.risks

RISKS-LIST: Risks-Forum Digest  Sunday 16 January 2000  Volume 20 : Issue 75

   FORUM ON RISKS TO THE PUBLIC IN COMPUTERS AND RELATED SYSTEMS (comp.risks)
   ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy, Peter G. Neumann, moderator

***** See last item for further information, disclaimers, caveats, etc. *****
This issue is archived at <URL:http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/20.75.html>
and by anonymous ftp at ftp.sri.com, cd risks .

  Contents:
More on Pentagon satellite data outage (PGN)
Credit-card data used for extortion (Steven M. Bellovin)
British Visa source-code compromised (Frank Markus)
Greek tax information system experiences black-out (Diomidis Spinellis)
Berlin Fire Department with Y2K Problem? (Debora Weber-Wulff)
Kremlin press office Y2K problems (Greg Lastowka via Declan McCullagh)
Re: Y2K99????? (Drew Davis via Mark Brader)
Sidekick98 Y2K bug squashed (Michael Froomkin)
Lookout Outlook! (Bruce Sterling)
Resume system creates "Profile" for you... without permission (Tom Malaher)
Woman ordered to pay back four pence (Alan Barclay)
More on RISKS-20.73 (Clive D.W. Feather)
Abridged info on RISKS (comp.risks)

[...]
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Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2000 13:04:38 +0300
From: Diomidis Spinellis <dspin@aegean.gr>
Subject: Greek tax information system experiences black-out

According to the Athens financial newspaper "Naftemporiki" (14 Jan 2000,
p. 7) the Greek tax information system TAXIS has been down since Tuesday
January 11th.  All computerised regional state finance offices (DOY) have
been affected as they are unable to connect to the system's main computer.
I was personally able to verify this at my local state finance office where
tax liability certificates were not issued on Wednesday.  According to
Naftemporiki, the affected services include the provision of tax liability
certificates, the issue of new tax registry numbers (AFM), and the
validation of ledgers and receipts.  Many of these services are needed for
the lawful conduct of business.

According to sources within the ministry (department) of finance, the
system's hard disk was overloaded by the large number of applications that
were running on it.  Another source claims that while data was transferred
from one hard disk to a larger one an error resulted in the loss of all
data.  The disk (referred to in the article as "the system's main memory")
has been sent to the United Kingdom to be repaired and to attempt to recover
the lost data.

Some of the above accounts are contradictory: it is not clear whether the
disk suffered a catastrophic failure, or the problem is a result of a human
error.  In any case, the reported attempt to recover data from the disk in
question suggests that database resiliency, backup and recovery procedures,
and contingency planning were not adequate.  In addition, it appears that a
system whose failure can disrupt business, trade, and everyday life of
millions of citizens (tax liability certificates are needed for many
important transactions) was not designed to withstand centralised failures.

Diomidis Spinellis, University of the Aegean
http://kerkis.math.aegean.gr/~dspin

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[...]

Date: 13 Dec 1999 (LAST-MODIFIED)
From: RISKS-request@csl.sri.com
Subject: Abridged info on RISKS (comp.risks)

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End of RISKS-FORUM Digest 20.75 
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