http://www.itn.co.uk/Business/bus19991229/122901bu.htm

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Card swipe machines crashing Credit card swipe machines in shops are set to keep crashing until January 1, bank chiefs have said.

Shoppers face difficulties paying for goods and services at the height of sales fever because a version of the millennium bug has struck early.

A software problem with the credit card terminals means they have been refusing to allow transactions from credit cards and debit cards - such as Visa, Mastercard and Switch to go through.

The glitch has left retailers frantically trying to put transactions through on old-fashioned paper slips.

A spokeswoman for HSBC, the high street bank which has issued 10,000 swipe machines to retailers, said: "The fault has been caused by terminals not being able to recognise January 1. It will be completely cleared by January 1."

The fault has struck despite it still being December because the system operates in such a way that credit card transactions stored on a central computer actually cover a four-day period. This takes them over the crucial January 1 threshold.

The millennium bug is caused by computers failing to recognise the date change from 1999 to 2000.

The HSBC spokeswoman said the fault "might be an end of year problem" rather than the infamous millennium bug, which is specific to January 1 in the year 2000".

She insisted that the fault did not mean the credit card swipe machines could not be used.

"Customers can still pay," she said. "The problem is a minor one and can be fixed by pressing a series of keys. Retailers having difficulty can ring our helpline to find out how it is done."

-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), December 29, 1999

Answers

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/dynamic/news/story.html?in_review_id=240 397&in_review_text_id=188765

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Credit card chaos sparks Bug fears

by Tim Barlass

Stores and businesses are bracing themselves for increasing millennium bug difficulties over the New Year sales period with shoppers already affected by the collapse of one swipe-card payment system.

Millions faced difficulties as shops reopened after the Christmas break as the credit-card machines failed to execute transactions which required recognition of the year 2000.

The problems were caused by a software glitch in swipe machines produced by electronics giant Racal and distributed through the high-street bank HSBC.

Customers throughout Britain were forced to queue to make payments as staff brought out old-fashioned manual machines, which produce a carbon copy of the transaction, rather than relying on electronic communication with a central database.

The difficulties, coming three days before the new millennium, has only served to heighten concerns that inadequate preparation for the computer programming bug may cause even more widespread problems. With the Racal problem, some 20,000 credit- card swipe machines are said to have been affected in what was dismissed as a "short-term minor technical difficulty".

"It is a problem which will be rectified in a few days," said a spokesman. "There is no question of the security of any transaction being compromised,"

The Government's taskforce Action 2000 said: "Many people think the millennium bug will strike as soon as the clock strikes midnight on New year's Eve 1999.

"The truth is it could happen any time a computer uses a date with the year 2000 contained in it."

At the same time, it has emerged that many of the largest companies in Britain are to shield themselves from attack from computer viruses which could disable their entire systems.

The firms, which include Glaxo Wellcome the pharmaceutical company, Vauxhall and Volkswagen, are to block all incoming e-mail that could offer an entry point for new viruses.

Glaxo has established back-up fax arrangements but said that very few employees would be working over the affected period.

Graham Cluley, consultant at Sophos, an anti-virus company, said: "This could create a considerable amount of confusion, especially for some paranoid organisations."

In the US, the Pentagon said it would shut down some of its public internet sites this weekend to keep them safe from hackers.

Several American air force bases are also to adopt the same safety measure.

Scotland Yard revealed earlier this month that it has sent a computer expert from its millennium unit to Australia to observe millennium celebrations in Sydney, which is 11 hours ahead.

Thje expert will be able to warn the Metropolitan Police if there are any technical or disorder problems.

-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), December 29, 1999.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_582000/582007.stm

Millenium bug hits retailers (UK)

-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), December 29, 1999.

Just a speed-bump-in-the-road-of-life.......

BUT - I'll be honest, I NEVER expected a glich to occur based on 4-day "advance" of Jan1

-- Robert A Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), December 29, 1999.

GOLLYGEEWHIZ! I never heard about this from my local news channels...Some more news the sheeple shouldn't have?

-- citizen (lost@sea.com), December 29, 1999.

So that's what happened at the post office this morning. I was behind a young man paying with a debit card. It took 20 min and 3 people and a telephone call to get it to work. Pam

-- Pamela (jpjgood@penn.com), December 29, 1999.

I tried to pay with a credit card yesterday. Had to pay cash.

-- Sally Strackbein (sally@y2kkitchen.com), December 29, 1999.

Remember HSBC was one of the two banks in the story from Hong Kong about upgrading their computers a few weeks ago and taking down their ATM network. Cheers, AGF

-- Dracon (dracon@greenspanisgod.gov), December 29, 1999.

This morning at grocery store, clerk mentioned that American Express cards weren't working. Others were fine.

-- anon (anon@anon.calm), December 29, 1999.