cybervampira
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'GPS systems will be struck by Y2K-like bug on April 6': Security expert says he will NOT fly on day | Daily Mail Online
GPS systems could be brought down next month due to a computer calendar error says information security expert.
An expert at the RSA 2019 security conference in San Francisco this week said he predicts a Y2K like computer error for older GPS systems to take place on April 6, in less than a month's time.
The computers' calendars could fail if GPS devices' with older systems flip back to zero after literally running out of time, reaching the end of their counters.
A similar prediction, nicknamed Y2K, was made in 1999 as the world worried over an impending computer shutdown.
Bill Malik, vice president of Trend Micro, a Taiwanese multinational cyber security and defense company, told Tom's Guide he wouldn't fly on April 6 and compared the prediction to the 1999 Y2K calendar error - but suggests things may be worse this time around.
He said: 'The effects would be more widespread because so many more systems have integrated GPS into their operations.'
[...]
The root of the problem:
GPS, the Global Positioning System, works on its own date and time scale based on counting weeks, and seconds in a week to express satellite positions.
GPS' are only able to count up to 1024 weeks before rolling over to zero again.
This is to limit the size of the numbers held in the GPS calculations.
The first ever week for GPS' started at 00:00:00 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) on Sunday, 6th January 1980.
Since then the week number has rolled over once from 1023 to 0 at 23:59:47 UTC on Saturday, August 21 1999.
This happens every 19.7 years.
The problem is caused when GPS-based equipment or software is confused by the rollover, in an error similar to the year-2000 software problems.
Source: National Physical Laboratory
Fun fact: GPS uses 10 bits to store the week. That means it runs out... oh heck – April 6, 2019
Y2K-like bug could cause GPS issues on April 6
GPS systems could be brought down next month due to a computer calendar error says information security expert.
An expert at the RSA 2019 security conference in San Francisco this week said he predicts a Y2K like computer error for older GPS systems to take place on April 6, in less than a month's time.
The computers' calendars could fail if GPS devices' with older systems flip back to zero after literally running out of time, reaching the end of their counters.
A similar prediction, nicknamed Y2K, was made in 1999 as the world worried over an impending computer shutdown.
Bill Malik, vice president of Trend Micro, a Taiwanese multinational cyber security and defense company, told Tom's Guide he wouldn't fly on April 6 and compared the prediction to the 1999 Y2K calendar error - but suggests things may be worse this time around.
He said: 'The effects would be more widespread because so many more systems have integrated GPS into their operations.'
[...]
The root of the problem:
GPS, the Global Positioning System, works on its own date and time scale based on counting weeks, and seconds in a week to express satellite positions.
GPS' are only able to count up to 1024 weeks before rolling over to zero again.
This is to limit the size of the numbers held in the GPS calculations.
The first ever week for GPS' started at 00:00:00 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) on Sunday, 6th January 1980.
Since then the week number has rolled over once from 1023 to 0 at 23:59:47 UTC on Saturday, August 21 1999.
This happens every 19.7 years.
The problem is caused when GPS-based equipment or software is confused by the rollover, in an error similar to the year-2000 software problems.
Source: National Physical Laboratory
Fun fact: GPS uses 10 bits to store the week. That means it runs out... oh heck – April 6, 2019
Y2K-like bug could cause GPS issues on April 6
Im sure I will need new fresh gallons of water and some new soup cans. 
