Air Traffic Control

According to the report of the President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection, the United States--with close to half of all computer capacity and 60 percent of Internet assets--is the world's most advanced and most dependent user of information technology. Disruption of these systems could create a widespread crisis. Accordingly, the upcoming change of century is a sweeping and urgent challenge for public and private-sector organizations. GAO has designated the Year 2000 computing issue as a high-risk area. This report (1) outlines the Year 2000 risks confronting the government and the nation, (2) describes the evolution of the federal government's Year 2000 strategy, and (3) identifies additional actions that the Executive Branch can take to prepare the nation for the Year 2000. GAO concludes that although progress has been made in addressing the federal government's Year 2000 computing crisis, serious vulnerabilities remain. Many agencies are behind schedule, and, at the current pace, it is clear that not all mission-critical systems will be fixed in time.

GAO noted that: (1) while progress has been made in addressing the federal government's year 2000 readiness, serious vulnerabilities remain; (2) many agencies are behind schedule; (3) at the current pace, it is clear that not all mission-critical systems will be fixed in time; (4) much more action is needed to ensure that federal agencies satisfactorily mitigate year 2000 risks to avoid debilitating consequences; (5) vital economic sectors of the nation likewise remain vulnerable to problems that the change of century will bring; (6) moreover, a high degree of information and systems interdependence exists among various levels of government and the private sector in each of these sectors; (7) these interdependencies increase the risk that a cascading wave of failures or interruptions of essential services could occur; (8) as the change of century grows closer and the breadth of year 2000 work that remains has become known, the federal government's response to the crisis has increased; (9) originally, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) expressed a high degree of confidence about the federal government's ability to meet the year 2000 deadline; (10) more recently, as many agencies have reported their limited progress in solving the year 2000 problem, OMB has become increasingly concerned; (11) accordingly, at the urging of key congressional leaders, OMB has improved its response to the crisis by issuing much needed policies and increasing its monitoring of agencies; (12) most encouraging is the President's recent announcement of the establishment of a President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion to oversee federal efforts and promote public/private relationships; and (13) the establishment of the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion provides an opportunity for the Executive Branch to take further key implementation steps to avert disruptions to critical services.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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