IP: Y2K

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> To: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
> Date: Thu, 05 Aug 99 11:26:46 PDT
> From: "Willis H. Ware" <willis () rand org>
>
>
>  A msg had been circulated that evidently originated with some lawyers
>  advising people to get an SSA earnings statement.  The message raised the
>  spectre that the SSA could crash and all records of past earnings lost.  I
>  guess lawyers have never heard about back-up tapes and similar
>  precautions.
>
>  From my point of view, it was unnecessary panic-type hype of the kind that
>  we've seen too much of and I answered as below.
>
>  If anyone is interested, the URL for the OMB/Y2K Council that rates
>  USGovernment systems is:
>
>           http://www.y2k.gov
>
>
>                                           willis
>
>  ------- Forwarded Message
>
>  Subject: Re: SSA and the Millennium Bug]
>  Date: Wed, 04 Aug 99 13:54:29 PDT
>  From: "Willis H. Ware" <willis () rand org
>
>
>  With regard to the message that hyped the risk that SSA might crash
>  catastrophically, BALONEY with a capital B.  Via a governemnt advisory
>  body that I chair, we poked fairly deeply into the status of SSA in re
>  Y2K.  Of all the Federal agencies, the one most regarded as being ready is
>  the SSA.  It started on the effort about 5 years ago because it
>  accidentally discovered the problem when trying to do 10-year
>  projections around the turn of the millenium and finding that the systems
>  couldn't handle them.  I heard their readiness briefing, and I'm not
>  worrying about my SSA checks being either late, wrong, or missing.  Even
>  if everything crashed, the SSA has several sets of backup tapes stored
>  off-site in a cave somewhere in Pennsylvania.
>
>  ALSO, there is an emergency procedure in place for printing checks.  Even
>  if the SSA installation were to crash completely, the Treasury (which
>  prints the checks at several sites throughout the country) automatically
>  repeats last month's check-run and mailing.  Then any errors are corrected
>  in the following month or so.
>
>  ALSO if you look at the Federal OMB assessments of the agencies, the SSA
>  has been the only one for a long time that gets an A+ in readiness on Y2K.
>
>  The hypster message is spreading the most unnecessary and alarming kind of
>  Y2K un-truth. Kill the mythology and hype; don't pass it around and create
>  needless panic reaction.
>
>  On the other hand, anyone is wise is to get a PEBES report from time to
>  time, but do it as prudent fiscal management, no as a Y2K panic move. You
>  can request it online but the results are USPS mailed to you as a security
>  measure. And you can do it at your leisure.
>
>                                           Willis