this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2024
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606
Fujitsu bugs that sent innocent people to prison were known “from the start” (arstechnica.com)
submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
42 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

A lot of people in the UK prosecutors offices and post office management should be going to prison.

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[–] [email protected] 156 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

That goes back to 1999, when the Horizon software system was installed in post offices by Fujitsu subsidiary International Computers Limited. From 1999 to 2015, Fujitsu's faulty accounting software aided in the prosecution and conviction of more than 900 sub-postmasters and postmistresses who were accused of theft or fraud when the software wrongly made it appear that money was missing from their branches.

During the prosecutions, courts hearing cases against postal employees "were not told of 29 bugs identified as early as 1999 in the system it built," The Guardian wrote in a summary of Patterson's testimony today. The article said:

When bugs were acknowledged, witness statements from Fujitsu staff due to be heard in court were then edited by the Post Office as it sought to maintain the line that the system was working well as it pursued innocent people through the courts.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Thanks, I was wondering what this was

[–] [email protected] 65 points 10 months ago

That really sounds like those that edited those testimonies and those that ordered the edits should be going to prison because holy shit that's bad