H
hermes
"Most of the desktop computers in the UK's Department for Work and
Pensions were paralyzed for four days on Monday, when a failed upgrade
took them off line. The outage, covering 75-80 per cent of the DWP's
80,000 PCs, is one of the largest in the UK Government's not entirely
impressive IT history."
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,11026,1360163,00.html
"Pension and benefit payments face disruption after what is being
described as the biggest computer crash in government history left as
many as 80,000 civil servants staring at blank screens and reverting to
writing out giro cheques by hand in the latest blow to a hi-tech
Whitehall revolution.
A week-long crisis in the giant Department for Work and Pensions created
a backlog of unprocessed claims with up to 80% of the ministry's 100,000
desk machines disrupted or knocked out by a blunder during maintenance.
Engineers battling to fix the problem last night claimed 95% were
functioning fully again as they prepared to reboot the entire network
after offices closed to the public.
Alan Johnson, the work and pensions secretary, has ordered an internal
inquiry into the role of Microsoft and the American contractors EDS, who
run the ministry's network as part of a £2bn information technology deal.
The disruption is the latest in a line of government technology failures
and follows last week's resignation of the head of the Child Support
Agency, part of Mr Johnson's empire, after the disastrous introduction
of an EDS system contributed to only one in eight parents receiving the
correct amount.
The DWP said some new and amended benefit claims this week would be
delayed but it sought to play down the impact of the technology
problems, pointing out that the department's mainframe computers were
not affected.
But internal DWP correspondence seen by the Guardian, backed up by
interviews with staff, appears to contradict public assertions that the
disruption was minimal and most of the system continued operating normally.
A "major incident report" distributed on Monday warned of "major
problems", with hourly updates issued to senior managers by fax or
telephone because email on the department's intranet was blocked.
The DWP established a "crisis management centre" to resolve the
problems, with Microsoft troubleshooters flown in from mainland Europe
to join a high-level team including EDS technicians.
A memo circulated yesterday within jobcentres said 30% of problems could
be eased by today with "a full solution potentially taking another 24-48
hours", and the difficulties running into the weekend.
"At this point there is no known solution or ETA," said the memo. "We
are hopeful that some interim measures that are being considered may
release some users from their current deadlock."
A routine software upgrade on a small number of PCs last weekend is
believed to have gone disastrously wrong when an incompatible system was
downloaded on to the whole network.
The DWP said last night that progress had been swifter than expected,
insisting contingency plans had worked.
"Pens came back out and in many cases hot desking was used," said a
senior official. "The problem was quite random so you could potentially
be sitting down at one desk and your mate next door couldn't access the
system."
Trade union leaders called on ministers to drop plans to cut 40,000 jobs
in the DWP and a total of 104,000 civil servants across the government
following the computer crisis.
Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services
Union, said: "Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse after the
experiences of the CSA we have what can only described as near-meltdown
with IT across the whole of the DWP.
"Yet again we are seeing thousands of hardworking staff, many of whom
face the axe, trying to deliver essential services with one hand tied
behind their back.
"The department and the government are hellbent on axing thousands of
civil and public servants, saying IT will enable them to do so, but yet
again we are seeing IT systems come to a grinding halt and fail.
"For the government and the department to contemplate axing thousands of
jobs when the IT clearly isn't delivering is not only irresponsible and
foolhardy, but some would argue pure madness."
Texas-based EDS has already seen £12.1m withheld by the government from
an ill-fated £450m CSA project. Mr Johnson is said to be considering
scrapping the contract.
Labour has spent some £1.5bn on over-budget or scrapped computer
projects, many inherited from the Conservatives, prompting National
Audit Office reports.
The Swanwick air traffic control centre, due to open in 1996 at a cost
of £475m, started six years late and £180m over-budget, while £300m was
spent on a scheme, later scrapped, to use plastic cards to pay benefits
via post offices.
EDS failed to get an Inland Revenue contract renewed after complaints
about its work.
Keith Wylie, a PCS national officer, said: "I cannot remember a crash
this big."
He added: "It's a massive failure and unless it's fixed quickly it's
going to result in significant delays in benefits being paid out. If it
was two years down the line and those 40,000 staff had been lost, there
would have been no one to write out the giros."
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,11026,1360163,00.html
I wonder if the UK National Health Service is regretting awarding
Microsoft a £500 million contract now?
--
hermes
DRM sux! Treacherous Computing kills our virtual civil liberties!
http://protectfreedom.tripod.com/index.html
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/tcpa-faq.html
http://anti-dmca.org/
http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/unintended_consequences.php
Windows XP crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams
Pensions were paralyzed for four days on Monday, when a failed upgrade
took them off line. The outage, covering 75-80 per cent of the DWP's
80,000 PCs, is one of the largest in the UK Government's not entirely
impressive IT history."
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,11026,1360163,00.html
"Pension and benefit payments face disruption after what is being
described as the biggest computer crash in government history left as
many as 80,000 civil servants staring at blank screens and reverting to
writing out giro cheques by hand in the latest blow to a hi-tech
Whitehall revolution.
A week-long crisis in the giant Department for Work and Pensions created
a backlog of unprocessed claims with up to 80% of the ministry's 100,000
desk machines disrupted or knocked out by a blunder during maintenance.
Engineers battling to fix the problem last night claimed 95% were
functioning fully again as they prepared to reboot the entire network
after offices closed to the public.
Alan Johnson, the work and pensions secretary, has ordered an internal
inquiry into the role of Microsoft and the American contractors EDS, who
run the ministry's network as part of a £2bn information technology deal.
The disruption is the latest in a line of government technology failures
and follows last week's resignation of the head of the Child Support
Agency, part of Mr Johnson's empire, after the disastrous introduction
of an EDS system contributed to only one in eight parents receiving the
correct amount.
The DWP said some new and amended benefit claims this week would be
delayed but it sought to play down the impact of the technology
problems, pointing out that the department's mainframe computers were
not affected.
But internal DWP correspondence seen by the Guardian, backed up by
interviews with staff, appears to contradict public assertions that the
disruption was minimal and most of the system continued operating normally.
A "major incident report" distributed on Monday warned of "major
problems", with hourly updates issued to senior managers by fax or
telephone because email on the department's intranet was blocked.
The DWP established a "crisis management centre" to resolve the
problems, with Microsoft troubleshooters flown in from mainland Europe
to join a high-level team including EDS technicians.
A memo circulated yesterday within jobcentres said 30% of problems could
be eased by today with "a full solution potentially taking another 24-48
hours", and the difficulties running into the weekend.
"At this point there is no known solution or ETA," said the memo. "We
are hopeful that some interim measures that are being considered may
release some users from their current deadlock."
A routine software upgrade on a small number of PCs last weekend is
believed to have gone disastrously wrong when an incompatible system was
downloaded on to the whole network.
The DWP said last night that progress had been swifter than expected,
insisting contingency plans had worked.
"Pens came back out and in many cases hot desking was used," said a
senior official. "The problem was quite random so you could potentially
be sitting down at one desk and your mate next door couldn't access the
system."
Trade union leaders called on ministers to drop plans to cut 40,000 jobs
in the DWP and a total of 104,000 civil servants across the government
following the computer crisis.
Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services
Union, said: "Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse after the
experiences of the CSA we have what can only described as near-meltdown
with IT across the whole of the DWP.
"Yet again we are seeing thousands of hardworking staff, many of whom
face the axe, trying to deliver essential services with one hand tied
behind their back.
"The department and the government are hellbent on axing thousands of
civil and public servants, saying IT will enable them to do so, but yet
again we are seeing IT systems come to a grinding halt and fail.
"For the government and the department to contemplate axing thousands of
jobs when the IT clearly isn't delivering is not only irresponsible and
foolhardy, but some would argue pure madness."
Texas-based EDS has already seen £12.1m withheld by the government from
an ill-fated £450m CSA project. Mr Johnson is said to be considering
scrapping the contract.
Labour has spent some £1.5bn on over-budget or scrapped computer
projects, many inherited from the Conservatives, prompting National
Audit Office reports.
The Swanwick air traffic control centre, due to open in 1996 at a cost
of £475m, started six years late and £180m over-budget, while £300m was
spent on a scheme, later scrapped, to use plastic cards to pay benefits
via post offices.
EDS failed to get an Inland Revenue contract renewed after complaints
about its work.
Keith Wylie, a PCS national officer, said: "I cannot remember a crash
this big."
He added: "It's a massive failure and unless it's fixed quickly it's
going to result in significant delays in benefits being paid out. If it
was two years down the line and those 40,000 staff had been lost, there
would have been no one to write out the giros."
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,11026,1360163,00.html
I wonder if the UK National Health Service is regretting awarding
Microsoft a £500 million contract now?
--
hermes
DRM sux! Treacherous Computing kills our virtual civil liberties!
http://protectfreedom.tripod.com/index.html
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/tcpa-faq.html
http://anti-dmca.org/
http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/unintended_consequences.php
Windows XP crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams