(cross-posted at:
Hoot at The Dark.)
Wired lists History's Ten Worst Software Bugs.
'[I]n 1945 engineers found a moth in Panel F, Relay #70 of the Harvard Mark II system. The computer was running a test of its multiplier and adder when the engineers noticed something was wrong. The moth was trapped, removed and taped into the computer's logbook with the words: "first actual case of a bug being found."'
The Top 10 list includes bugs both intentional ('Morris Worm' and the dreaded 'Ping of Death') as well as the unintentional (rocketry software, medical radiation devices, operating systems, phone switches, computer chips).
Yet of all the bugs that make the list, the CIA should probably be credited with the all-time worst:
'1982 -- Soviet gas pipeline. Operatives working for the Central Intelligence Agency allegedly (.pdf) plant a bug in a Canadian computer system purchased to control the trans-Siberian gas pipeline. The Soviets had obtained the system as part of a wide-ranging effort to covertly purchase or steal sensitive U.S. technology. The CIA reportedly found out about the program and decided to make it backfire with equipment that would pass Soviet inspection and then fail once in operation. The resulting event is reportedly the largest non-nuclear explosion in the planet's history.'
The moth may have been the first found computer bug, but given that the tiniest piece of code can produce such immensely disasterous consequences, the butterfly really seems a more appropriate poster child.
Update: Actually, Wired fudges a bit. From the article they link to:
"The result was the most monumental non-nuclear explosion and fire ever seen from space," he recalls, adding that U.S. satellites picked up the explosion.
MsLibrarian says that the Halifax Explosion in 1917 was the worst man-made explosion:
"It killed 2000, injured nearly 10,000 more and destroyed (pretty much) two cities."
Yet whichever explosion was actually bigger (and who am I to argue with a librarian?) the bug which caused the Soviet gas explosion still had a most profound effect on World History.
"While there were no physical casualties from the pipeline explosion, there was significant damage to the Soviet economy," he writes. "Its ultimate bankruptcy, not a bloody battle or nuclear exchange, is what brought the Cold War to an end. In time the Soviets came to understand that they had been stealing bogus technology, but now what were they to do? By implication, every cell of the Soviet leviathan might be infected. They had no way of knowing which equipment was sound, which was bogus. All was suspect, which was the intended endgame for the entire operation."
That's big.