How did Australia prepare for Y2K and the Millennium bug? | ABC NEWS
The millennium or Y2K bug was a predicted catastrophic malfunction in computers everywhere, as the date ticked over at midnight from 31/12/99 to 01/01/00. This was caused by a programming shortcut, in which only two digits were used to represent the year instead of four, meaning the year 2000 could be interpreted as 1900 – potentially causing widespread failures of computer systems.
Businesses and governments spent billions of dollars updating computers and systems to prepare for the event, to try to prevent chaos and loss of life resulting from the failure of telephone networks, public transport systems, hospitals, banks and government databases.
Original reporting by Sarah Clarke. Social version produced by Madeleine Wales for ABC News Digital.
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