Page 1
© 2019 JETIR April 2019, Volume 6, Issue 4 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162)
JETIR1904A83 Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR) www.jetir.org 553
SOFTWARE TESTING, FAULT, LOSS AND
REMEDIES
Faizan Mahmood, Dr. Dhirendra Pandey
Research Scholar, Assistant Professor (DIT,BBAU LUCKNOW)
Abstract
Software Testing is the process of metric evaluation of software program. Although it is used for
checking the quality parameters and accuracy of the software based upon the user’s requirement whether
it matches it or not. In other words, Software Testing generalizes the software on the basis of standards
and history that if software is affected by errors, bugs then it have to drain out for better maintenance. The
role of software testing is to improve the software quality that software developed is not error free, so
there are such measures that rectify errors for better functioning of software. Lack of software testing
resulted into havoc that turns into loss of financial and human bodies. In this paper, we will figure out the
reasons behind the loss of bodies in the form of lack of software testing. There are such possibilities that
with the help of it, we will generalize the shortcomings of errors in the upcoming accidents.
Keywords: Software Testing, Software failure
I. Introduction:
Software Engineering is the detailed study of construction or building of software in a systematic method.
In other words, software engineering generalizes all the engineered stages of developing a product which
includes analysis, designing, testing, maintenance as well as coding. The process of Software Engineering
is to put up the entire user’s requirement into one and process it through the analysis for sketch model or
rough design of the software and then go for design, coding and testing stage.
Going through all the stages we come to know that testing is the procedural stage which is have to be
implemented from the first and last because the responsibility of testing stage have to be implemented in
others. Likewise, we can’t implement analysis stage into design one but testing is the featured content that
have to be implemented throughout the development process. In actual, Testing is the experimental stage
that initializes the unit to unit and module to module description of the software program which concludes
many standards for the basis criteria fulfilled by the program.
The importance of software testing is the presence of quality as well as quantity. However this is not
possible but in this fast growing world, the user’s wants new features in the product as well as advanced
technologies just because of competition is expanding day by day in all over the veins of industry but no
one want to indulged in the defected product as the resultant is the loss of time and money which is the
Page 2
© 2019 JETIR April 2019, Volume 6, Issue 4 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162)
JETIR1904A83 Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR) www.jetir.org 554
most crucial part of content in the software program. In other words, software testing plays a very
important role so to achieve error free product in a given span of time.
Figure 1: Implementation of software development with respect to testing
The above defines the importance of all the three main stages into stages which plays a very important
role in the development of software.
Failure can be defined as the arising of unexpected and wrong output which is not the desirable output by
the program by many undefined reasons. Although failure generalizes the wrong input which results into
wrong output of the program. In general, failure is the resultant of defects that also are not fully
responsible for the causing of the system failure but the other reasons that are responsible are the
environmental change like the developed product does not matches the climate or the environment.
Human error also result into the occurrence of failure by many aspects as one of them is the wrong input
and also the error in coding that avoided due to lack of software testing. At last, software failure is a
crucial part of the running product that will be responsible for price of human’s lives too.
II. Loss and Remedies:
In the history of software industry, there are many such incidents that affect the financial and human lives.
These failures happened due to many such reasons some percentage of errors, some of defects, some of
environmental disaster and some includes the human errors. We will list all such failures from beginning
Software Engineering
Software Testing
Qualitative and Quantitative
Product
Page 3
© 2019 JETIR April 2019, Volume 6, Issue 4 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162)
JETIR1904A83 Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR) www.jetir.org 555
to now that affected the software industry from many aspects and also lead an example for not such
happenings in the future that did financial loss and took human lives.
Figure 2: Truth behind the procedure of fault solution
There are following disasters also known as failures and loss in the perspective of software industry with
remedies from various aspects according to the loss of the system.
1. First Computer Bug
On September 9, 1947 at 3:45 p.m., Grace Murray Hopper made an entry in the log book that a moth is
struck in between the relay contacts in the system which is generating problem in the implementation.
Remedy: The moth is being taken out from where it struck and fixed it into the logbook for clear
explanation.
2. Mariner I space probe
Mariner I is the hope of NASA just to make an adventurous journey of flyby survey of Venus in the
history and due to these important factors, it took numbers in construction, calculation and finance too.
But just after 5 minutes of flight, it exploded and all the hopes and dreams of NASA comes down with the
remaining part of spacecraft. This incident took many dreams incomplete and a heavy loss to the US
government of around $80 million. The main cause of this disaster is a hyphen; somewhere lie in hand-
transcribed mathematical coding.
Remedy: As I am generalizing the factor behind the failure of Mariner 1 is incorrect code input so
there will be such technique or manual process at that time to pick out the error which avoids the cost
destruction of $80 million.
System Malfunctoning
Blind Faith
Tragedy Happened
Fault Occured
Solution Suggested
Page 4
© 2019 JETIR April 2019, Volume 6, Issue 4 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162)
JETIR1904A83 Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR) www.jetir.org 556
Also, the generated error is very small and the failure rate is very high so before turn down into
production, the code has to be checked properly as for only searching the errors.
3. Trans-Siberian Gas Pipeline Explosion
This is a big example of destruction which takes place due to occurrence of the software bug. So the story
is that the time is 1982, cold war between USA and Russia and with the help of a Canadian company,
CIA placed a bug mainly Trojan horse in that software which is being controlled the Trans-Siberian gas
pipeline. It results into explosion of a power of a three kiloton nuclear weapon that the fire is seen even
from the space. This is the tragedy which is the planned for the economic loss of Russia and the operation
is successful.
Remedy: The reason behind the explosion is the installation of virus before the deployment of the
software. So as to secure from these type of incident, the security must be tight from both sides as from
development to deployment process. The security breach can be assured in any case so there should be
beta testing of software.
4. Cold War Missile Crisis
On September 26, 1983, Stanislav Petro was the incharge officer of a secret bunker which is responsible
for the early warning missile system of Soviet Union. At the early morning time, they found that five
minuteman ballistic missiles had been launched by USA which led to cold war between two big nations
and if it is true then another world war will be take place but Petro justify that this was the false alarm as
there were not strong evidences that the attack was real and by USA.
It was later determined that the early detection software had picked up the sun’s reflection from the top of
clouds and misinterpreted it as missile launches. So it is a failure which happened in the software
implementation process. Although this can be more bad if Russia launched its missiles in the fake
betrayal of USA.
Remedy: The major solution for this tragedy is that there should be such proper and alternative
measures with which if the software is giving any wrong output then there will be other confirmations for
the accurate resultant for avoiding mass destruction.
5. Therac-25
It is the time of 1985-87, when Therac-25 which was a radiation therapy type of machines also known as
the machine which kills cancerous tissue deep inside the body. Hence it is used for chemotherapy so it is
the hope that it cures the patients than to harm them. In the time span of 1986 to 1987, radiation exposed
to six patients massive than the need which lead four of them killed and two having injuries for unlimited
time.
It is after deployment failure that may be the bug is generated by some errors such that instantly giving
command to computer at that time when it shows error and also at that time, machine is not safe to use.
Page 5
© 2019 JETIR April 2019, Volume 6, Issue 4 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162)
JETIR1904A83 Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR) www.jetir.org 557
Remedy: On February 10, 1987, the Health Protection Branch of the Canadian government along
with the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) take a decision that Therac-25 is not fit for
use and till it will be declared fit again, it will be shut down up to the next approval.
On July 21, 1987, many part updated and when final decisions took by AECL, Therac-25 is again present
for the killing of cancerous tissue.
Some of these recommendations are:
The machine operators have to re-renter information without machine cannot be stared
Also check the metal place which is used in machine are in place after the selection of x-ray
beam.
Whatever error messages that displayed on the screen will be clearer.
6. Buffer overflow in Berkeley UNIX finger daemon
On Nov 2, 1988, there was a worn named Morris form which gets flash back when Ronald Reagan was
going to exit White House and at that time, Robert T. Morris who is the computer programmer infected
10 percent of the internet. It is the first internet worm which affects in between 2,000 and 6,000
computers in a day by taking proper implementation of a buffer overflow. In general, Morris has a 99 line
program which is going to ruin the systems having Digital VAX and Sun 3. As this worm didn’t have any
infected code still Morris infected the computers with the help of send mail like programs to spread worm
across the internet.
Remedy: Comparing that time, the only solution is to repair all those systems but there is a
thinkable point that at that the affected systems are in thousands and the cleaning cost lies between 200$
and $53,000 per site as according to the documents provided to the court when there is not much traffic
but in today’s world, if this havoc will be happen then the cleansing cost will be outbreak all the numbers
and may it lead to the astronomical.
7. AT&T Network Outage
On January 15, 1990, this is a new bug that comes out on the release of software that controls AT&T’s
#4ESS which are long distance switching protocol and due to it computers that have these software are
receiving a message from their neighbouring machines. These machines are affected and they are affected
the neighbouring machines by sending them messages and getting crashed. In a short span of time around
114 switches are crashed and there is the estimation that 60 thousand people are left without long distance
service for 9 hours. After generalizing the whole scenario, we come to know that the bug will be occurred
in the coding phase and due to which the whole system suffers it. May be a single line of bug affected
Page 6
© 2019 JETIR April 2019, Volume 6, Issue 4 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162)
JETIR1904A83 Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR) www.jetir.org 558
code from the software system are accepting the fact that the switches were receiving the messages too
early at the time of reset process which is causing the failure of switches.
Remedy: There is so much talk about to learn from the incident. Also, the use of programs having
C language and compliers are having the breakdown in this incident. To avoid this incident there should
be a more proper and structured having standard compilers may receive the error free systems. There
should be a processed fault tolerant software and hardware that have to construct such structure that
handle the less affected problems and also reduced the effect of the error.
8. Patriot Missile Bug
On February 25th, 1991, it is the time of Desert Shield Operation when US military deployed a Missile
System named as Patriot which will be used against aircraft and missiles. The software which is using for
tracking the Patriot missile calculate the velocity of the hitting target and the current time to justify the
target from the source to destination. These calculations have to very accurate.
There comes to knowledge about having bug in the tracking software which is over time and in actual
the bug was fixed by resetting the system clock. Bad luck the operators of the software don’t understands
the proper regularity of the system reboot and it will left open for 100 hours. When Iraqis launched the
missile whose target was airfield in Dhahran and Saudi Arabia, at that time, Patriot missile system tracked
the missile but the internal clock is having the drift by some sort of seconds, so this error don’t generalize
the actual time of the incoming missile and this error killed around 28 soldiers and 98 are injured.
Remedy: This is the disadvantage of an older software that you are not familiar from the behaviour
of the software. The software that are using in military software have to be robust and their input and
output must be accurate and after using old software for a long period of time, there should be proper
maintenance. Also when it was found that the software contains bug then this has not to be used by the
US military as there should be some defection in any aspects.
9. The Ping of Death
In 1995/1996 , There is a system avoidance in the sanity checks and handling of error in the IP
fragmentation that have the power to crash a major variety of operating systems by sending a malfunction
program namely “ping” from any part of the internet and also the most affected systems are the computers
that runs Windows in it. The cause is that it shuts down the computer and the infamous blue screen of
death appears when any system received those packets and the attack was also affected to the other
systems like Mac and UNIX.
In a particular closed shell like internet, it is possible to crash, reboot or get bugged many systems by
only sending a malicious program from the driving machine or system. Although this is a serious problem
which leads the multiple productions of errors and at that time only IP address is the key chain to affect
the system and nothing.
Page 7
© 2019 JETIR April 2019, Volume 6, Issue 4 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162)
JETIR1904A83 Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR) www.jetir.org 559
Remedy: If in Windows or any other system, no patch is available at that time and as this case, the
root cause is the pings, so the best solution is to block all such pings on the firewall. This is a very short
term solution as there will be flooding of pings, so it is not possible to do it manually. Another solution
may be considered all your ports that are connecting to the outside world and check the chances of
vulnerability in it but we can’t stop this too as there will be some invalid packets on the web server to
attack the system. So at last, the only solution is to patch your operating system.
10. Ariane 5 Flight 501
This is the incident which occurred on June 4, 1996. The code that used in Ariane 4 is again used in
Ariane but Ariane have faster technology by which it generalize a bug inside the flight computer of the
rocket which is the main controlling body. This defined as it is converting 16-bit integer with sign from a
64-bit floating point number. As the coding is according to Ariane 4, so the fast engine of Ariane 5
generalize the 64 bit numbers to be a larger as compared to Ariane 4 which arises a condition of overflow
that results into crashing of flight computer. The backup computer of First Flight 501 also crashed just
few seconds later from the primary computer. Due to the crashing of computers, the primary processor of
rocket overpowers the engine of rocket and as the resultant the rocket is to disintegrate 40 seconds after
the launching period.
The actual reason of failure of Ariane 501 was the loss of guidance and also having no information of
altitude just few seconds after the start of main engine. This low level information was just due to
consideration of specified and design errors in the software.
Remedy: The best solution is to review all the flight software also considering the definition of
components that are critical and also considers the origin of software to till date for the view point of
failure. We can also generalize the test cases of existing equipment and never decide that your sensor will
not stop best data for upon sending of it.
11. Mars Climate Orbiter: The $327 Million Disaster
This is the incident of December 11, 1998 when Mars Climate Orbiter launched for generating a new and
unprecedented image for USA for searching life in other planets. But an error ruined all the system which
is generated in computer software of ground based system. NASA costs $327.6 million project when its
spaceship lost after 286 days from the launching date. This all happens due to a miscalculation that when
the Orbiter just entered the Mars atmosphere from the point which is not suitable for it and after that it
gets disintegrated in a very short span of time.
So the main cause of this incident is that computer software which is supplied by the company namely
Lockheed Martin are generated the results into customary unit according to the Software Interface
Specification (SIS) and that secondary system which is by NASA are generated that particular results in
Page 8
© 2019 JETIR April 2019, Volume 6, Issue 4 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162)
JETIR1904A83 Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR) www.jetir.org 560
SI units. Also, system that is going to calculate the total impulse which is going to be generated by thrust
firings are giving results in pound-force seconds. On the other hand, the calculation of trajectory motion
by the software is using the result in Newton-Seconds just to update the particular position of spacecraft
which is predicted along with the direction. Although, NASA did not blame Lockheed for the error
instead of blame it for not doing the proper checking and tests that identify the error.
Remedy: This is may be the biggest tragedy in the history of NASA and as we are generalizing all
the incidents, the problem or the error is not big just all the incidents are the case of lack of concentration
and avoidance. Although, here error is of not matching the units in which all the parameters will be done
as a results, so due to this fault, this tragedy happened and such consequences are made for the future
references. Also, there should be deep analysis of the testing for getting rid of errors.
12. Millennium Bug
As it is generalize from the name that the incident is of 2000 which is also known as Millennium Bug and
many of us have the remembrance of that event. The reason of occurring this error is because 2000 format
is like the first insight for the machine that is why it is showing this error.
This error causes due to some sort of short-sightedness which will be done by computer programmers in
the starting of 2000. Also, the problem is that many computer systems are showing the date of only two
digits like 98 in place of 1998. Likewise, 2000 is showing as 00 by which the personnel are getting
confused the systems that it is 2000 or 1900 or 1800 due to which crosses the millennium and getting
calculations wrong. For example if someone born in 1935 and dying in 2001 then his/her age will be
minus ‘-’ 35 years old.
Remedy: This is generally a bug which is included due to the parameter error that either 00 is what
number, so it is clear that it is unable to recognize the starting numbers and it is get confused by the 0
digit. So there is not any particular solution that either it is going on which system. The main issue that all
systems are connected till date so the calculations that are made upon the date are getting wrong. The only
solution is that taking zero as the number and has an alternate digit on it that if it is getting problem with
the zero then it will be not problem at all.
13. National Cancer Institute, Panama City
This incident happened on November, 2000 by a one to one accidents that a U.S. based firm namely
Multidata Systems Internationals made a software which is used for giving the dosage of radiations for
those patients who are under therapy of radiation but it miscalculate itself. For security measures, the
company gives permission to sketch the blocks which is made up of metal shields which is specially
designed to save the body tissue from the radiation therapy and the error is that the software is using only
four metal shields instead of five and the security of human body is main concern.
Page 9
© 2019 JETIR April 2019, Volume 6, Issue 4 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162)
JETIR1904A83 Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR) www.jetir.org 561
So due to this concern, the doctor decided to implement the alternate solution that sketch all the five
blocks into one single blocks with one middle hole without knowing the proper solution by Multidata
software and the correct solution is that on the drawing of hole, draw it in one direction and the proper
dose is done by the machine and if it draw in the opposite side then the software suggests the double
exposure of dose which is twice from the normal. In the resultant, eight patients were died and twenty
others have health problems due to overdose.
Remedy: The only solution is that first to analysis why there are only have the possibility of
drawing four shields instead of five, this is may be due to design problem but doctors are unprofessional
related to the software so they don’t have to do that experiment and also this generalization is wrong to
search for the alternate solution in the software industry because every part of stage is systematic that one
will not generalize any other solution.
14. St. Mary’s Mercy Medical Centre Kills Its Patients
This is the incident which took the lives of 8,500 patients which happened at the St. Mary’s Mercy
Medical Centre in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This all went through October, 25 to December 11 and the
real cause is that there is a glitch in the software of hospital management system which sis especially for
the patients and it records all the patients’ information even their security and insurance companies of the
patients. So due to wrong mapping in between the patient’s account and their information, this all
happened. St Mary’s spokeswoman Jennifer Cemmenga told that this is not a big story and it is up to all.
It is just a mapping error only.
Remedy: After studying this incident, we come to know that this software bug may be occurred
after the deployment of the software which may be cause due to lack of proper testing. There should be
such testing standards which generalize the proper analysis of software with respect to the testing
features. There should be proper maintenance of the software as if we study this incident, it takes three
month till then all such cases happened. So there is lack of concentration and also we said it also blind
faith on software.
15. World of Warcraft “Corrupted-Blood” Glitch
The incident is recorded on September 13, 2005 which is all about a famous and successful game named
World of Warcraft by Blizzard Entertainment. The main cause is that it suffered from a glitch which
comes in the update on September 13, 2005 and due to this there is having mass death which is fictional
but due to having glitch, it is recorded. Furthermore, there is a character in the game name Hakkar which
is having enemy character have the feature to spread the disease which is called Corrupted Blood and
when someone is playing the game, the character are draining their health over a short span of time. Also,
this disease has the feature of spreading from character to character or player to player.
Page 10
© 2019 JETIR April 2019, Volume 6, Issue 4 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162)
JETIR1904A83 Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR) www.jetir.org 562
Remedy: After generalizing the whole scenario we come to know that this must be both design and
coding problem and due to which this character is behaving like this. So, the final solution is that at the
time of generalizing any character or introducing any character, its feature will be properly defined and
there should be some another type of coding glitch that is causing the whole game infected, so there will
be proper alpha testing to remove this glitch and if it passes the alpha testing then it will be after
deployment glitch which infected from outside program.
16. Michigan Dept. of Corrections Grants Prisoners Early Release
This is very strange incident which happened on October, 2005 and the story is that due to glitch in the
software, 23 prisoners were released early from their definite punishment limit. This incident clarifies by
The Registrar of the jail and also specifies that the glitch is present in the computer programming. This is
another example of blind faith on the software and also ignoring the systematic approach of checking the
system functionality. State assembly representative Rick Joes stated about the matter that the prisoners
who are released earlier are not murderers.
Remedy: This is again an example of the loss of proper functionality and avoidance of importance
of having such tragedy. The software glitch as defined is the programming glitch, so there are questions
that arises that what about the testing feature if the glitch was done in coding phase and where the prison
officials are blind dependent on the software system as they knows about the bug. The proper remedy is
that during the software development, the process carried out will be under more proper environment.
17. Knight Capital Group Loses Nine Figures in 30 Minutes
This is the incident which held on 2012 in which Knight Capital Group which is a market-maker
company whose image is so much good in money figures in the market just ruined due to a buggy system
in the algorithm of computer trading and due to this the system decided to buy high and sell low on 150
stocks which is generally not good for company. When this all accidental procedure stopped, the
company lost $440 million on the trading system. If we compare then its market capital is $296 million
and the loss was so much from its net income. Also, it’s natural that due to this incident the stock price of
company reached 62 percent lower in a day only.
Remedy: After generalizing this incident, it is a very hard to believe incident that a reputational
company loses its 9 figures of income in just a time of 30 minutes just because of a software glitch. In this
the software has to be properly maintainable time to time and there should be barrier that if such tragedy
happens then the software automatically stopped working or if software works malfunction then the
system drops down. There should be such measures in today’s world. The proper remedy is that like that
emergency button functions likewise there will be such command which stops the whole ongoing process
less than in a minute.
Page 11
© 2019 JETIR April 2019, Volume 6, Issue 4 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162)
JETIR1904A83 Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR) www.jetir.org 563
18. Software Glitch Causes F-35 to Detect Targets Incorrectly
The incident noted down about the F-35 fighter aircraft in which there is occurrence of software glitch due
to which when the plane is in flight mode then it is getting difficult for it to detect potential targets from
different part of view. Although, Software professionals generalizes that the software glitch manipulate the
software and even it targets in a wrong manner means if someone point out target and it understand
something else. Also its automatic identifiable target system is not working properly. Also, the installed
sensors are not working properly and unable to detect the threats.
Remedy: As it is the part of defence system, so before taking flight, all the systems should be
thoroughly checked upon the practical sense of technology. Also, if it happened in the war time then it
will be a bad segment of having software glitch which affects human lives. Having choosing target
incorrectly implies that it will fire upon some living areas that is not a good sign of having such system.
19. $65,000 Jackpot Declared To Be a Casino Software Error
This is a very funny incident in which 82 year old woman won the jackpot of around $65,054 in a club.
When the employee informed the officials of the club about her winnings then it come in knowledge that
the maximum winning mark is $10,000 from that machine. So it is a software glitch of what happens is
not an easy forgotten incident but this type of incident happened due to error in numbers.
Remedy: The incident occurred is a pure software glitch and this all because of the complexity in
numbers. So the solution is clearly explained that the machine can’t show the winning more than $10,000
but the problem is then how it shows this large amount, so if we go through the system then the proper
maintenance is required as to generalize the errors.
20. Yahoo Japan System Glitch Loses 2.58 Million Emails
This is the incident that happened in Japan where Yahoo found a software glitch due to which, by 970,000
yahoo account, it losses 2.8 million emails. This software glitch continued its hold on yahoo by 10 hours
and also shut down the access from 2.6 million users. The cause is still unpredictable but yahoo claims
that 60% of emails are spam that are not useful by account holders but rest of 40% are may be useful or
even important one, so were this incident change their lives in what context.
Remedy: This software glitch is a part of negligence by Yahoo as there should be proper
maintenance of the system and if this type of incident happened, there should be some backup account
holding all mails to avoid such loss.
Page 12
© 2019 JETIR April 2019, Volume 6, Issue 4 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162)
JETIR1904A83 Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR) www.jetir.org 564
II. Discussion
After generalizing the loss and remedies of around 20 software failures, we come to know that generally
we are considering much avoidance which will be not good for software and also the connected part i.e.
human lives and money. Many software failures are such that they are happened just because of
unprofessional are considering the internal aspect of the software which is so difficult that not everyone
hold its complexity.
So, in the following table, we are generalizing the events occurred in a concise manner. This is
beneficiary to look on the following details for quick study of the table. This table contains what
happened in the event, about fault, what are the losses and what remedy will be provided so that the same
type of software incident will not be happened again because many are the events that owns the human’s
lives and many are who took financial cost too.
Table 1: A general view on the events occurred which held the software failure
S.
No.
Name of Event
Occurred
Type of Fault Loss Remedy
Provided
1. First computer
bug
Moth stuck between the
relay contacts
No Loss Moth is being taken out
2. Mariner I space
probe
Incorrect code input due
to which Mariner I
exploded
$80 million Testing should be done
properly as the error is
very small.
3. Trans-Siberian
gas pipeline
explosion
CIA placed bug in
Russia
gas pipeline.
No human loss but
the fire is very
heavy.
There should be tight
security to avoid security
breach.
4. Cold war missile
crisis
Early software detects
sunlight as missile hit.
No loss due to
proper decision by
military personnel.
There will be alternate
measures beyond the
software check.
5. Therac-25
Radiation therapy
machine to kill
cancerous cell exposed
Four of them killed
and two having
injuries for
unlimited time.
Before starting of therapy,
the machine will be
checked on some alternate
structure.
6. Buffer overflow
in Berkeley
UNIX finger
daemon.
Worn named Morris
infected 2000 to 6000
computers in a day,
Per computer
cleaning cost lies
$200 and $53000.
The only remedy is to
clean the computer.
7. AT&T network
outage
Machines are getting
affected and also
affecting the other
machines.
No particular loss There should be a
processed fault tolerant
software and hardware.
Page 13
© 2019 JETIR April 2019, Volume 6, Issue 4 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162)
JETIR1904A83 Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR) www.jetir.org 565
8. Patriot missile
bug
Having bug in the
tracking software which
is over time and in actual
the bug was fixed by
resetting the
system clock.
This error killed
around 28 soldiers
and 98 are injured.
The software that are
using in military software
have to be robust and their
input and output must be
accurate.
9. The ping of death
The cause is that it shuts
down the computer and
the infamous blue screen
of death appears.
Systems are
affected and
operating system
are crashed.
To block all such pings on
the firewall. This is a
very short term solution as
there will be flooding of
pings.
10 Ariane 5 flight
501
The error arises a
condition of overflow
because the programmer
implements old
tech software to
the new machine
Results into
crashing of flight
computer.
To review all the flight
software also considering
the definition of
components that are
critical and also considers
the origin of software.
11 Mars Climate
orbiter: The $327
million Disaster
This all happens due to a
misidentifying of units.
The orbiter
disintegrate with
NASA whose cost
was $327 Million
The error is not big just all
the incidents are the case
of lack of concentration
and avoidance. Although,
here error is of not
matching the units.
12. Millennium Bug
The problem is that
many computer systems
are
showing the date of only
two digits like 98 in
place of 1998. Likewise,
2000 is showing as 00.
Neither major nor
minor loss but just
the calculations by
date are wrong
The solution is that taking
zero as the number and
has an alternate digit on it
that if it is getting problem
with the zero.
13. National Cancer
Institute, Panama
City
The doctor decided to
implement the alternate
solution that sketch all
the five blocks into one
single blocks with one
middle hole without
knowing the proper
solution.
Eight patients were
died and twenty
others have health
problems due to
overdose.
Doctors are
unprofessional related to
the software so
they don’t have to do that
experiment.
14. St. Mary’s Mercy
Medical Centre
Kills Its Patients
So due to wrong
mapping in between the
patient’s account and
their information, this
happened.
Fake killings of
8,500 patients due
to software glitch.
There should be proper
maintenance of the
software.
Page 14
© 2019 JETIR April 2019, Volume 6, Issue 4 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162)
JETIR1904A83 Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR) www.jetir.org 566
15. World of
Warcraft
“Corrupted-
Blood” Glitch
There is a character in
the game name Hakkar
have the feature to
spread
the disease and the
character are draining
their health Also,
disease has the feature of
spreading from character
to character.
It affected the
whole game and
thus it is a fictional
game, no casualty
occurred just
maintenance cost
of software.
The final solution is that
at the time of generalizing
any character or
introducing any character,
its feature will be properly
defined.
16. Michigan Dept.
of corrections
grants prisoners
early release
The story is that due to
glitch in the software, 23
prisoners were released
early from their definite
punishment limit.
As they are the
prisoners, so this
glitch will be more
offensive if the
released prisoners
are murderers but it
is not the case.
The proper remedy is that
during the software
development, the process
carried out will be under
more proper environment.
17. Knight Capital
Group Loses
Nine Figures in
30 Minutes
Due to a buggy system
in the algorithm of
computer trading and
due to this the system
decided to buy high and
sell low on 150 stocks.
The company lost
$440 million.
The proper remedy is that
like that emergency button
functions, there will be
such command which
stops the whole ongoing
process in a second.
18. Software glitch
causes F-35 to
detect targets
incorrectly
The software glitch
manipulate the software
and even it targets in a
wrong manner means if
someone point out target
and it understand
something else.
No particular loss
as it did not hit any
target and the
professionals
generalise the
mistake before.
As it is the part of defence
system, so before taking
flight, all the systems
should be thoroughly
checked upon the practical
sense of technology.
19. $65,000 jackpot
declared to be a
casino software
error
This is a very funny
incident in which 82 year
old woman won the
jackpot of around
$65,054 in a club.
There is not any
loss as the software
glitch was being by
the club attendant.
So if we go through the
system then the proper
maintenance is required as
to generalize the errors.
20. Yahoo japan
system glitch
loses 2.58 million
emails
Software glitch due to
which, by 970,000 yahoo
account, it losses 2.8
million emails. This
software glitch continued
its hold on yahoo by
10 hours and also shut
down the access from
2.6 million users.
There is no any
particular loss but
the emails that
are deleted might
be important or
more.
There should be proper
maintenance of the system
and if this type of
incident happened, there
should be some backup
account holding all mails
to avoid such loss.
Page 15
© 2019 JETIR April 2019, Volume 6, Issue 4 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162)
JETIR1904A83 Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR) www.jetir.org 567
III. Conclusion
In this paper, we have proposed software failures with which we provide the factors behind these failures
and also remedies for these failures. Also, there is a little sort of research on each failure that how much it
affects human lives and money. Many software failures are just due to unable to identifying the error on
proper time, due to which the havoc happened. Others are occurred due to involvement of non-expertise
of software industry. Some errors due to which the failure happened are very small or we can say that
they are not expectable. Some software failures are occurred after the updating of software.
IV. References
1. Software at https://searchmicroservices.techtarget.com/definition/software
2. Software Failure, Fault and Error at http://softwaretestingqc.blogspot.com/2009/05/software-failure-
fault-and-error.html
3. The very first recorded computer bug at https://thenextweb.com/shareables/2013/09/18/the-very-first-
computer-bug/
4. MARINER I DONE IN BY A TYPO at https://www.wired.com/2009/07/dayintech-0722
5. The Original Logic Bomb at https://rconnon12.wordpress.com/2014/10/26/third/
6. The Day the World Almost Died at https://www.learning-history.com/cold-war-day-world-almost-died/
7. Killed by a machine at https://hackaday.com/2015/10/26/killed-by-a machine-the-therac-25/
8. Who Let The Worms Out? at http://www.eweek.com/security/who-let-the-worms-out
9. All Circuits are Busy Now at http://users.csc.calpoly.edu/~jdalbey/SWE/Papers/att_collapse.html
10. Patriot Missile Failure at https://embeddedgurus.com/barr-code/2014/03/lethal-software-defects-
patriot-missile-failure/
11. History’s world software bugs at https://www.wired.com/2005/11/historys-worst-software-bugs/
12. ARIANE 501 at https://www.esa.int/For_Media/Press_Releases/Ariane_501_-
_Presentation_of_Inquiry_Board_report
13. Y2K bug at https://www.britannica.com/technology/Y2K-bug
14. Two of history’s worst software bugs reported to be in medical software at
https://www.healthcareguy.com/2005/11/09/two-of-historys-worst-software-bugs-reported-to-be-in-
medical-software/
15. St. Mary's Hospital Investigation at http://www.ghostresearch.org/Investigations/hospital2.html
16. How Blizzard coped with World of Warcraft's blood plague and other early disasters at
https://www.pcgamer.com/how-blizzard-coped-with-world-of-warcrafts-blood-plague-and-other-early-
disasters/
Page 16
© 2019 JETIR April 2019, Volume 6, Issue 4 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162)
JETIR1904A83 Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR) www.jetir.org 568
17. Michigan PC glitch lets prisoners out early at
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/10/24/michigan_jail_pc_snafu/
18. Knight Capital Says Trading Glitch Cost It $440 Million at
https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/08/02/knight-capital-says-trading-mishap-cost-it-440-million/
19. Software Glitch Causes F-35 to Incorrectly Detect Targets in Formation at
https://www.military.com/defensetech/2015/03/24/software-glitch-causes-f-35-to-incorrectly-detect-
targets-in-formation
20. 21 Infamous & Expensive Software Bugs at https://99tests.com/blog/21-infamous-expensive-software-
21. Pokie meltdown: $65k jackpot turns out to be machine glitch at https://www.qt.com.au/news/its-a-dream-
shared-by-many-to-one-day-hit-the-big-/2716546/
22. A classification of software faults at
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228894619_A_classification_of_software_faults