Water purification systems could go haywire because they cannot calculate the time interval since the last treatment. Credit card transactions may be refusedVISA has already had to recall cards with the expiration date of 2000 because the card readers thought the cards expired in 1900. Security systems may deny entry if they believe the current date to be different than it actually is. Medical equipment and aircraft tracking systems could shut down because they think it's time for required maintenance. Risk is associated with the uncertainty surrounding the Year 2000 problem, including the potential impact of the problem on your government's operations and the potential liability of not addressing the problem.
Contingency planning is an important part of addressing risk.
The second consideration of the Year 2000 problem, cost, includes the cost of assessing the scope of your Year 2000 problem, the cost of potential damage done by the failure to correct the problem, and the cost of solving the problem. The third consideration, time horizon, is the most serious. Unlike other computer projects, correcting the Year 2000 problem leaves no margin for delay. The deadline cannot be moved. To address the problems of risk, cost, and time horizon, your government must be able to identify all occurrences of date-dependent processing, prioritize them for correction, and commit the resources necessary to solve the problems in a timely manner.