Chapter 7:

Computer Reliability

Ethics for the Information Age

By

Ing. Dr. Nsor-Anabiah Solomon

Tel: 0206495677
Email: nsoranabiah@gmail.com

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 Chapter Overview

• Introduction
• Data-entry or data-retrieval errors
• Software and billing errors
• Notable software system failures
• Therac-25
• Computer simulations
• Software engineering
• Software warranties

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 Introduction

• Computer systems are sometimes unreliable

– Erroneous information in databases
– Misinterpretation of database information (similar
names)
– Malfunction of embedded systems (fatal errors)
• Effects of computer errors
– Inconvenience
– Bad business decisions
– Fatalities

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 Data-Entry or Data-Retrieval Errors

• A computerized system may fail because

wrong data entered into it
• A computerized system may fail because
people incorrectly interpret data they
retrieve

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 Disfranchised Voters

• November 2000 general election

• Florida disqualified thousands of voters
• Reason: People identified as felons
• Cause: Incorrect records in voter database
• Consequence: May have affected
election’s outcome

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 False Arrests

• Sheila Jackson Stossier mistaken for Shirley

Jackson
– Arrested and spent five days in detention
• Roberto Hernandez mistaken for another
Roberto Hernandez
– Arrested twice and spent 12 days in jail
• Terry Dean Rogan arrested after someone stole
his identity
– Arrested five times, three times at gun point

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 Position of Privacy Advocates

• Number of records is increasing

• More erroneous records  more false
arrests
• Accuracy of crime records more important
than ever

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 Software and Billing Errors

• Assume data correctly fed into

computerized system
• System may still fail if there is an error in
its programming

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 Errors Leading to System Malfunctions

• Qwest sends incorrect bills to cell phone

customers ($600/minute)
– A bill of more than $57,000 for a customer
• Spelling and grammar error checkers
increased errors (University documents)
• BMW on-board computer failure (Thailand
finance minister was trapped in his BMW)

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 Errors Leading to System Failures

• Temporarily out-of-control Boeing 777

(Malaysian plane over the Indian ocean-
autopilot error)
• Japan’s air traffic control system
• London International Financial Futures and
Options Exchange

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 Analysis: E-Retailer Posts Wrong
Price, Refuses to Deliver
• Amazon.com in Britain offered iPaq
(handheld computers) for £7 instead of
£275
• Orders flooded in
• Amazon.com shut down site, refused to
deliver unless customers paid true price
• Was Amazon.com wrong to refuse to fill
the orders? 1-11

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 Notable Software System Failures
• Patriot Missile (28 soldiers killed) –
insufficient precision in an floating-point
variable (system clock)
• Ariane 5 ($500 million not insured) – Integer
overflow error
• AT&T long-distance network (70 million calls
couldn’t be made and 60,000 people lost
service)
• Direct recording electronic voting machines
• Therac-25 (3 patients killed out of 6
patients) SW error resulted in overdoses. 1-12

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 Direct Recording Electronic Voting
Machines
• After problems with 2000 election, Congress
passed Help America Vote Act of 2002
• Provided money to states to replace punch card
voting systems
• Many states used funds to purchase direct
recording electronic (DRE) voting machines
• Brazil and India have run national elections using
DRE voting machines exclusively
• In November 2006 1/3 of U.S. voters used DRE
voting machines
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 Issues with DRE Voting Machines

• Voting irregularities
– Failure to record votes
– Overcounting votes
– Misrecording votes
• Lack of a paper audit trail
• Vulnerability to tampering
• Source code a trade secret, can’t be examined
• Possibility of widespread fraud through malicious
programming

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 Moral Responsibility of the
Therac-25 Team
• Conditions for moral responsibility
– Causal condition: actions (or inactions) caused the
harm
– Mental condition
• Actions (or inactions) intended or willed -OR-
• Moral agent is careless, reckless, or negligent
• Therac-25 team morally responsible
– They constructed the device that caused the harm
– They were negligent

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 Uses of Computer Simulations

• Simulations replace physical experiments. Why?

– Experiment too expensive or time-consuming
– Experiment unethical
– Experiment impossible (evolution of the universe)
• Examples of uses of simulations:
– Model past events (Evolution of the universe)
– Understand world around us (Search for Oil)
– Predict the future (weather predictions)

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 Validating Simulations

• Erroneous Simulation because of :

– Bugs in SW
– Model uses SW is flawed
• Solutions:
– Verification: Does program correctly implement model?
– Validation: Does the model accurately represent the real
system?
• Validation methods
– Make prediction, wait to see if it comes true (Car crash)
– Predict the present from old data (Weather forecast)
– Test credibility with experts and decision makers
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 Software Engineering

• SE is a four steps process:

– Specs: determine the functions to be
performed
– Development: produce SW that meet
specs.
– Validation: testing the SW
– Evolution: Modify SW to meet change
requirements
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 Software Engineering: Specification

• Followed SW Crises in 1960s

• Specifications of SE:
– Determine system requirements
– Understand constraints
– Determine feasibility (Budget and schedule)
• End products
– High-level statement of requirements (Summary)
– Mock-up of user interface
– Low-level requirements statement (Detailed)
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 Software Engineering: Development
• Create high-level design
• Discover and resolve mistakes, omissions
in specification
• CASE tools to support design process
• Object-oriented systems have advantages
• After detailed design, actual programs
written
• Result: working software system
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 Software Engineering: Validation
(Testing)

• Ensure software satisfies specification

• Ensure software meets user’s needs
• Challenges to testing software
– Noncontinuous responses to changes in input. No
identical data set of inputs
– Exhaustive testing impossible. Infinite number of
different inputs
– Testing reveals bugs, but cannot prove none exist
• Test modules, then subsystems, then system
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 Software Quality Is Improving

• Standish Group tracks IT projects

• Situation in 1994
– 1/3 projects cancelled before completion
– 1/2 projects had time and/or cost overruns
– 1/6 projects completed on time / on budget
• Situation in 2006
– 1/6 projects cancelled
– 1/2 projects had time and/or cost overruns
– 1/3 projects completed on time / on budget
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 Shrinkwrap Warranties

• Some say you accept software “as is”

• Some offer 90-day replacement or money-
back guarantee
• None accept liability for harm caused by
use of software

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 Moral Responsibility of Software
Manufacturers
• If vendors were responsible for harmful consequences
of defects
– Companies would test software more
– They would purchase liability insurance
– Software would cost more
– Start-ups would be affected more than big companies and thus
– Less innovation in software industry
– Software would be more reliable
• Making vendors responsible for harmful consequences
of defects may be wrong
• Consumers should not have to pay for bug fixes

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