Miracle Inc., Cybersecurity Division. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

Led by Zhang Wei and Kevin Mitnick, the network supervisors took a tour, and then found a place to sit down and discuss the issue of the Millennium Bug.

Millennium bug?

Zhang Wei knows a little bit about this thing.

The Millennium Bug is also known as the "Computer Millennium Millennial Bug Problem" or "Millennium Crisis", abbreviated as "Y2K". It refers to the use of computer programs in some intelligent systems, including computer systems, automatic control chips, etc., because the year is only represented by two-digit decimal numbers, so when the system performs or involves cross-century date processing operations, such as the calculation or comparison between multiple dates, there will be wrong results, and then cause a variety of system dysfunction or even collapse. So fundamentally, the Millennium Bug is a program that deals with computer program failures on dates, not viruses.

It stands to reason that the bug outbreak period should be the beginning of the millennium, but interestingly, the Millennium Bug outbreak did not occur on January 1, 2000, but it may "bite" you any day after January 1, 2000, and the real outbreak was most concentrated between December 31, 2000 and January 1, 2001.

Everyone sat on the sofa in the lounge area, drinking coffee and chatting from time to time.

Zhang Wei listened carefully and didn't speak.

Cheng Qiang introduced: "The problem of millennium bugs is said to be big and big, and it is very small to say, for example, our Beijing Computer Problem Office received more than a dozen calls for help some time ago, reflecting that their computers have suffered from millennium bug problems, there is a young lady surnamed Wei whose stock trading machine cannot work, and there are hundreds of contact numbers in Mr. Wang's electronic notepad that disappeared overnight, and there are countless things like this. ”

Zhang Wei smacked his lips and said, "It's not too big." ”

"Mr. Zhang, you don't understand this. Lin Xiaoyun sat on the sofa and took a sip of coffee, and said: "Let me give you an example, if you make a three-minute call at 23:59 on the evening of December 31, 1999, if there is a millennium bug problem in the telephone office, it is very likely that the bill will be displayed as 100 years minus three minutes, who can afford this phone bill?"

Zhang Wei said movingly: "This problem seems to be very serious. ”

Lu Suming pushed his glasses and said: "Suppose this kind of problem occurs in the computer of the tax bureau, it is very likely that your company will receive a hundred years of tax arrears, which is definitely an astronomical amount, no company can afford it, right? There are also medical instruments such as life-saving systems or monitoring systems that may crash and cause patients' lives to be in danger, and blood bank management, doctor's order system, medical records, and equipment management are all unable to operate normally, not to mention the transportation system, power system and other industries, and even ...... If something goes wrong with the military missile system, it will be a disaster!"

That was a real disaster!

No wonder the whole world is on high alert!

Zhang Wei vaguely understood this, in later generations, he also heard a little about the thunder and rain of the millennium worm, and always felt that the "millennium bug" was in vain, but he didn't expect the matter to be so serious, suppose that the miracle company would have received a notice of tax payment for 100 years?

Cheng Qiang suddenly said: "Of course, we didn't ask you to help for free this time, the state allocated about 500 million as research and development funds, we can cooperate with your company to set up a separate research department, on the other hand, your company is also engaged in the network, especially in communications, if there are any problems about network monitoring in the future, we will give priority to review." ”

There are words in the words!

Some words can't be explained!

But Zhang Wei knows what the other party means, this is a promise, which roughly means that there is no big problem with your miracle company, and I will help you carry it here. For Zhang Weijia's other industries, this promise may be useless, but the miracle company and Ahri Baba are different, if you encounter some thorny problems, if it doesn't matter, people get stuck, then the loss is not a star and a half, with this relationship is different, as long as the company abides by the law and rules in the future, it will basically not encounter any problems stuck by the relevant departments.

In addition, this research fund is borne by the network supervisor, and Zhang Wei only needs to send someone here, and there may be some remuneration.

After Zhang Wei heard this, he was immediately moved, it doesn't matter if the reward is paid or not, the most important thing is this promise, he turned his head to look at Kevin Mitnick, the former world's number one hacker, and said, "Kevin, do you have any thoughts on the Millennium Worm?"

Hearing this, everyone looked over.

That's right, isn't the reason why they are cooperating with Zhang Wei's company this time because of this powerful hacker?

Everyone is looking forward to it!

Kevin Mitnick shrugged and said: "I know a little bit about the millennium bug, broadly speaking, the millennium bug includes the following two aspects: one is that in some computer systems, there is a problem with the calculation and identification of leap years, and the year 2000 cannot be recognized as a leap year, that is, there is no February 29, 2000 in the calendar of the computer system, but directly from February 28, 2000 to March 1, 2000 The other is in some older computer systems, in the program uses the number string 99 or 99/99 to indicate the end of the file, permanent expiration, deletion and other special meaning of some automatic operations, so that when September 9, 1999 or April 9, 1999, that is, the 99th day of 1999, the computer system will encounter 99 or 99/ 99 and other numeric strings, so that the file is mistaken for expired or deleted the file, causing system confusion or even crashing. ”

Hit the nail on the head!

He was once the world's number one hacker!

Cheng Qiang and the others nodded again and again, and a young network supervisor couldn't help but say, "Then do you have any good solutions?"

Zhang Wei also looked over and wanted to hear what Kevin Mitnick had to say.

Kevin replied, "The roots of the millennium bug problem began in the 60s. At that time, the cost of computer memory was very high, and if the year was represented by four digits, it would take up more memory space, which would increase the cost, so in order to save storage space, the programmers of the computer system used two digits to represent the year. With the rapid development of computer technology, although the price of memory was later reduced, the practice of using two digits to represent the year in computer systems was inherited due to the force of inertia in thinking, and it was not until the dawn of the new century that everyone suddenly realized that the year 2000 A.D. and later could not be correctly identified by using two digits to represent the year. ”

Zhang Wei listened to his brainless words, and he couldn't bear it a little, and said, "What about the solution?"

These words are clueless for Zhang Wei, but for the network supervisors, they are the key to the root cause!

Lin Xiaoyun nodded again and again.

Lu Suming's gaze at Kevin became hotter and hotter.

As for Cheng Qiang and other network monitoring technology masters, they are all admiring in their hearts, look, masters, there are no vains under the fame, look at the problem from the root, it seems that this solution is nine out of ten!

To everyone's surprise, Kevin spread his hands and said, "No way." ”

Cheng Qiang, who was drinking coffee, made a "poof" and almost sprayed Lin Xiaoyun!

The expectant smiles of Lin Xiaoyun, Lu Suming and the others suddenly froze on their faces, and it was all nonsense to talk to your sister for a long time?

Zhang Wei didn't quite understand, so he looked over and said, "Since you know the problem, why can't you solve it?"

A chubby online supervisor in his thirties wiped the cold sweat on his forehead and said, "Mr. Kevin, are you joking with us?"

"That's right!"

"Mr. Kevin, you're the world's number one hacker!"

"We are all full of confidence in you, there is no way to help it!"

The network supervisors held it up one sentence after another.

Kevin showed a helpless look and explained: "Actually, it's not that there is no way, you have all mastered the correct way, first, upgrade all the databases, add 2 digits to the time field; second, all time functions are changed to take 4 digits of the year, and at the same time add a comparison, if it is lower than 1970, change it to 20xx years; third, all the statements about the date and time field, such as truncating the length of the string, etc.; fourth, all the window tables about the date display, The character input box can be used to display or enter the 4-digit year correctly; Fifth, some software goes to the customer to upgrade, and the database upgrade is to write a special program, run it, and then cover the application as soon as it is finished. ”

After hearing this, the eyes of the network supervisors went dark!

Do you want your mother to talk about these copies?

The world has been doing this since '97!

Now we don't want this expensive solution, but to find a more time-saving, labor-saving and money-saving way!

To put it mildly, these methods proposed by Kevin just now, as long as a programmer knows, bullshit, and once the world's No. 1 hacker, the level is not more than Erer!

At this moment, Cheng Qiang and the others felt that it might be a wrong decision to ask Zhang Wei for help this time, if it weren't for Zhang Wei's face, they wouldn't want to listen to Kevin, so they couldn't wait to stand up and leave!

Unlike these insiders, Zhang Wei didn't understand it, so he still asked some questions, and asked: "Then why can't you make a software that directly covers those 2-digit fields?"

Lu Suming smiled bitterly: "The Millennium Bug is just a structural flaw that is fixed in the program, and this flaw is fixed, and errors only occur when the date is processed, which will cause confusion. If there is no date processing, there is no error at all, and there are countless software programs on the computer that require date processing, how can it be possible to cover it all with one software?"

Everyone sighed secretly in their hearts, Xiao Zhang is a layman in the end, I don't understand, but what they sigh even more is that Kevin, who has great hopes, is too disappointing!