Government IT Failures
While thinking about how an ID database might be designed, implemented and rolled out with a budget of £3.1bn I decided to have a look into the government’s track record on IT open source projects wiki.
If you find any more government IT failures out there do add them here, I suggest limiting to failures of the UK government for now as otherwise this page could quickly become unmanageable.
| May 2001, Payroll system not delivered 9 years late | |
| Company | McDonnell Douglas Information Systems |
| Department | Department of Finance and Personnel |
| Cost | £3.3m |
| http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/15/civil_service_project/ | |
| 2001, MoD Computers hacked ‘at least’ 48 times | |
| Company | n/a |
| Department | Ministry of Defence |
| Cost | unknown |
| http://www.vnunet.com/news/1128637 | |
| 2002, Government website hands out money to ‘fraudsters’ | |
| Company | Capita |
| Department | Department for Education and Skills |
| Cost | Unknown |
| http://www.computerweekly.com/Article109438.htm | |
| November 2004, 80,000 Staff Unable to process new pensions | |
| Company | Microsoft & Electronic Data Systems (EDS) |
| Department | Department for Work and Pensions |
| Cost | unknown, but the support contract costs £2bn annually |
| http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4044085.stmhttp://www.publictechnology.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2203http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/26/dwp_network_outage/ | |
| November 2004, Police in England & Wales unable to use fingerprint system NAFIS for over a week. | |
| Company | Northrop Grumman (TRW at time of implementation) |
| Department | Police Information Technology Organisation (public-body) |
| Cost | Implementation cost £88m |
| http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/02/nafis_comms_glitch/ | |
| May 2006, 18,300 MOT testing centres disrupted by technical problems with MOT system delivered 4 years late. | |
| Company | Siemens Business Services |
| Department | Ministry of Transport |
| Cost | Implementation cost: £230mCompensation cost: unknown |
| http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/30/pcs_slams_mot_system_delays/http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/16/mot_computer_crash/ | |
Inland Revenue
- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/10/11/eds_revenue_rage/
- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/09/inland-revenue_destroys_1m_tax_records/
- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/08/05/eds_wins_prisoner_deal/
- http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2005/04/19/inland_revenue_computers_back_to_future/
Benefits system
- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/12/dwp_research_csa/
- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/22/eds_revenue_again/
Gov computer stuff
- http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2005/07/12/homeoffice_thieves_paradise/
- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/05/mps_openness_ogc/
- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/27/id_card_costings/
- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/14/eds_government_probe/
Corporate identity – new scandal over ID cards Has a list of Government IT Failures.
AberFreeNet
October 17, 2018 by JohnCun • AberStaff, AberWiki, Aberystwyth, IRC 0 Comments
The network and it’s main channel, #aber, serves a disparate group composed primarily of aberystwyth (aber) university students past and present. Currently averaging 37 online at any one time. The total userbase is a mystery, but in the region of 50-70. There are unconfirmed rumours of another subgroup forming around the channel #42.
The Aber Free Net was created as a result of the irc server athos.ivixor.net (sadly no longer with us) de-linking from BitterNet (circa 2001). The server was initially populated by a breakaway faction of disaffected users of OtherAber who were looking for a more enlightened and egalitarian channel to use. See more at AFNet History.
A characteristic of AFNET is the perceived and/or actual absence of rules, regulations, fabricated power structures or hierarchy. If you want to read more about best open source wiki you can follow this link.
Getting on IRC
You can connect to the AFNet by pointing your irc client at one of the servers listed below, or using one of the links on WebIRC if you are a web weenie.
Server address
irc.aberwiki.org
Hint – start your IRC client and type:
Or on the web: WebIRC
Well used channels: #aber, #shells, #fresher, #code