After 16 Years, 'Interim' CTO Finally Eradicating Fujitsu and Horizon From the UK's Post Office (computerweekly.com) 38
Besides running tech operations at the UK's Post Office, their interim CTO is also removing and replacing Fujitsu's Horizon system, which Computer Weekly describes as "the error-ridden software that a public inquiry linked to 13 people taking their own lives."
After over 16 years of covering the scandal they'd first discovered back in 2009, Computer Weekly now talks to CTO Paul Anastassi about his plans to finally remove every trace of the Horizon system that's been in use at Post Office branches for over 30 years — before the year 2030: "There are more than 80 components that make up the Horizon platform, and only half of those are managed by Fujitsu," said Anastassi. "The other components are internal and often with other third parties as well," he added... The plan is to introduce a modern front end that is device agnostic. "We want to get away from [the need] to have a certain device on a certain terminal in your branch. We want to provide flexibility around that...."
Anastassi is not the first person to be given the task of terminating Horizon and ending Fujitsu's contract. In 2015, the Post Office began a project to replace Fujitsu and Horizon with IBM and its technology, but after things got complex, Post Office directors went crawling back to Fujitsu. Then, after Horizon was proved in the High Court to be at fault for the account shortfalls that subpostmasters were blamed and punished for, the Post Office knew it had to change the system. This culminated in the New Branch IT (NBIT) project, but this ran into trouble and was eventually axed. This was before Anastassi's time, and before that of its new top team of executives....
Things are finally moving at pace, and by the summer of this year, two separate contracts will be signed with suppliers, signalling the beginning of the final act for Fujitsu and its Horizon system.
Anastassi has 30 years of IT management experience, the article points out, and he estimates the project will even bring "a considerable cost saving over what we currently pay for Fujitsu."
After over 16 years of covering the scandal they'd first discovered back in 2009, Computer Weekly now talks to CTO Paul Anastassi about his plans to finally remove every trace of the Horizon system that's been in use at Post Office branches for over 30 years — before the year 2030: "There are more than 80 components that make up the Horizon platform, and only half of those are managed by Fujitsu," said Anastassi. "The other components are internal and often with other third parties as well," he added... The plan is to introduce a modern front end that is device agnostic. "We want to get away from [the need] to have a certain device on a certain terminal in your branch. We want to provide flexibility around that...."
Anastassi is not the first person to be given the task of terminating Horizon and ending Fujitsu's contract. In 2015, the Post Office began a project to replace Fujitsu and Horizon with IBM and its technology, but after things got complex, Post Office directors went crawling back to Fujitsu. Then, after Horizon was proved in the High Court to be at fault for the account shortfalls that subpostmasters were blamed and punished for, the Post Office knew it had to change the system. This culminated in the New Branch IT (NBIT) project, but this ran into trouble and was eventually axed. This was before Anastassi's time, and before that of its new top team of executives....
Things are finally moving at pace, and by the summer of this year, two separate contracts will be signed with suppliers, signalling the beginning of the final act for Fujitsu and its Horizon system.
Anastassi has 30 years of IT management experience, the article points out, and he estimates the project will even bring "a considerable cost saving over what we currently pay for Fujitsu."
Re: 13 people taking their own lives (Score:3)
These are people who were facing serious prison sentences - like, decades. They knew they were innocent, but had had everything they owned taken from them, their reputation dragged through the mud, and were going to prison, and were completely powerless to stop it. I am in no way surprised some of them committed suicide.
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It's terrible that so many people were so selfish and thousands of lives were damaged or ruined as an outc
Why has no-one gone to jail yet? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: Why has no-one gone to jail yet? (Score:4, Insightful)
Has tony gone to jail over iraq? Only vat-paying commonets go to jail, government apointees never do...
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How many bankers in the United States went to jail as a result of the 2008 financial crisis? One.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Kareem Serageldin (born in 1973) is a former executive at Credit Suisse. He is notable for being the only banker in the United States to be sentenced to jail time as a result of the 2008 financial crisis.
Software quality risk factor (Score:2, Offtopic)
The net result is that when a remote remote risk has such dire consequences (life changing government prosecution), the risk-reward shifts far into the "too risky' category.
The same is happening in many other areas, turning what was once everyday regular actions into possible, remote, life threatening or life ending risks.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ne... [dailymail.co.uk]
Good Samaritan spends two weeks in a maximum security prison after woman whose car he helped fix falsely accused him of indecent assault
Mr Basic spent two
Re: Software quality risk factor (Score:3)
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And the injustice continues. She gets her face and tag number blurred in the photos while we see a portrait picture of him. We get his name but she is "the teenager" or "the nineteen year old woman". Even after we know she committed a crime and he didn't.
Being arrested is a life threatening risk (Score:2)
The fact that the media, liberal and conservative parties, nonprofits and single advocacy groups treat a fraudulent lying accusation of rape or sexual assault as acceptable "collateral damage" on men is very wrong.
Being arrested and spending time in jail before trial is a life threatening risk. Losing your job after 3 days in jail is a life changing risk, leading to many divorces and male suicides.
Here is an example of the risks of being arrested on false charges which had a 60+ year old innocent man bein
Re: Why has no-one gone to jail yet? (Score:2)
Better, cheaper AND Quick (Score:3)
Anastassi has 30 years of IT management experience, the article points out, and he estimates the project will even bring "a considerable cost saving over what we currently pay for Fujitsu."
Sounds like they are aiming to do in 5 years what they could not get done before, and for a lower cost. Ambitious!
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oh, the aim is just to pretend they're fixing the it system, that huuuuge barely tractable problem that eclipses all the endemic corruption in their bureaucracy, government and justice system and their decades long cover-up which was the real cause of all that misery and death. if you can destroy a person's life because a bug in your software, and do it again, and again, and again, and do it over and over for over 30 years then software never was the issue.
but if you fail to fix the system in 5 years, and g
Led by donkeys (Score:2)
UK management at its typical.
Re: Better, cheaper AND Quick (Score:2)
Be aware that the Post Office is a shell of what it once was. I doubt it presents as much of a s/w engineering challenge as it once did.
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"My nephew said he can make it in something called react dot js in his sparetime over the next few weeks."
why can’t fujitsu make the thing better? (Score:2)
it isn’t like fujitsu couldn’t see the writing on the wall. would they rather lose a large contract than improve their services? and if the system is so intractable, then it is a clear signal to stay clear of their wares.
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Apparently, Fujitsu still gets to collect on their contract in spite of a glaring defect that actually contributed (however indirectly) to several deaths.
Outsourcing (Score:4, Interesting)
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Yes. lf they need to do is hire a team of crack programmers and system architects and have them start work on replacing the systems. Keep them hired as a key department of the post office and they will maintain the system. If it's good they could even license it out to others.
I've seen this happen in other contexts. E.G. in a semiconductor firm, they designed their own tools. Then they made that a whole department and spun it out as one of the chip design tool vendors which is still around today.
If you just
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Yet, somehow, although management is very rarely a core function of a business, it never gets outsourced.
Holy Fuck! This Should Terrify You All. (Score:5, Insightful)
This is thousands of peoples lives ruined!
59 people contemplated suicide.
10 attempted suicide and survived.
13 died by suicide! [computerweekly.com]
All this death and lives destroyed because of software bugs! As well as people refusing to believe, and others covering up the facts of a system's fallibility. Thousands of false accusations of theft. Hundreds of false criminal prosecutions for theft. All because the "infallible" computer was in fact wrong.
And now we have AI. Imagine when the AI decides to "intentionally" work against you. Imagine when it lies -- hallucinates" -- and otherwise works against you with relentless, untiring, super-human speed.
This story just terrify the fuck out of you. It does me.
I hope that Slashdot dupes this story tomorrow and the day after.
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But that is just pure Sci-Fi horror! THIS [slashdot.org] never happens!
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It will be just like the NHS upgrade (Score:2)
10 billion spent and then scrapping it. How about this Royal Post, how about I get my mail every day, we used to get it TWICE a day not that long ago, now I'm lucky to get it twice a week.
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Re: It will be just like the NHS upgrade (Score:2)
It wasn't just London, the whole of the U.K. got morning mail and then afternoon mail (usually @4pm) I know, Post and Mail are now separate, but that does not ease my ire. People are missing Dr's appts because the advance letter never arrives in time.
The whole debacle of Horizon, the branch managers and how long it took for the gov to recognise the problem is criminal. Now they've gone back and forth with IBM , will prolly go ahead but it will cost 3 times as much.
Re: It will be just like the NHS upgrade (Score:2)
Your mother needs firing after the job she did last night!
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Re:It will be just like the NHS upgrade (Score:4, Informative)
They are separate things, since 2012. In 2012, the Royal Mail split off the Post Office, to serve as retail shops selling postal and package products and services, including the services of the Royal Mail.
But this 16 years long and life threatening debacle started in 2009 when they were both the singular Royal Mail.
Re: It will be just like the NHS upgrade (Score:2)
I'd imagine that a replacement IT system would be "lesser" somehow than before, because of the split, though perhaps not...at least it should be because there are now so few Post Offices because so many have closed?
Correcting the headline (Score:3)
'Interim' CTO Announces Intent to Eradicate Fujitsu and Horizon From the UK's Post Office, marking the third time this was attempted over the last 16 years. The last two times they tried they ended up going back to the software.
What went wrong with Horizon :o (Score:1)
Fujitsu lied, Post Office management lied to deflect attention from the guilty, management prosecuted the sub-post masters, jailing some and driving some to suicide. No one at Post Office head office has been held to account.
‘Anastassi. This will allow the Post Office to bring in systems that it doesn’t build itself. “We may buy softw
Mr. Bates vs the Post Office (Score:2)
Okay, granted, it's PBS show so there may very well be important elements to the story being left out but it is worth watching. Nobody wanted to admit that this was a colossal cock-up (to use the British vernacular). It's stunning that it's taken this long to scrap the system and nobody truly responsible or complicit (there were plenty of those) has gone to prison. But hey, at least it's not like an American class-action suit that only makes the lawyers rich while the victims get coupons for discounts to
Absolutely enraging. (Score:2)
Monetary compensation is insufficient to rectify this atrocity. Unless the UK can erase prison time and resurrect the dead, the punishment must be similarly brutal.
Fire all remaining Post Office employees who carried out these prosecutions and accusations without verifying data. Terminated with no severance. Cut the post office budget by 30% for 5 years, non-negotiable.
Assign neutral overseers to all