Computers as weapons

From: James B. DiGriz <jbdigriz_at_dragonsweb.org>
Date: Mon May 7 19:18:40 2001

Pete Turnbull wrote:
>

<cut>

> The only documented case I recall immediately is the famous Therac-25 case.
> This was essentially a case of misdesign, which led to half a dozen
> deaths. A Google search for "therac" or "leveson" will find plenty of
> references.
>
> Some time ago, when I was doing a course on Software Engineering for Safety
> Critical Systems, I came across a book with several other reports, but I
> can't remember the title or author :-( I don't recall any other fatal
> incidents, though.
>

Thanks, Pete. I read the comp.risks digest fairly regularly during the
late '80s, but I don't recall anything about this case, for some reason.
Makes me glad my father got cobalt treatments in that time frame,
instead.

I was actually thinking more along the lines of actual malice, though.
The original Operation Sundevil apparently grew out of the presumed
sabotage of AT&T switches in a widespread long-distance outage, which
was later shown to be due to a bug in the software. This discovery
didn't stop a lot of people from getting arrested, though. Not that some
could exactly be called innocent babes, but they were hardly terrorists
bent on bringing down the system, either. I'm just curious how many
actual, documented occurences there have been of a computer being used,
as a computer, not being dropped on somebody's head or something, to
cause injury or death. Subject to the 10-year rule, of course.

I've been locked up over a computer before-unjustly, I hasten to add-and
if I hadn't had a cool head and an inspiring namesake, somebody would
have suffered injury or worse, but that doesn't count, either.

jbdigriz
Received on Mon May 07 2001 - 19:18:40 BST