Post office Horizon scandal just got worse

[Sciolus]

But,, of course Fujitsu could alter accounts. You can't design and run a database without super-duper-admin rights.
The issue is the governance of the access.

Gotta disagree with this. The only access Fujitsu should have had to the live database was for code updates through an authorised procedure. These should never have changed any data held in the database. Any anomalies in the data should have been fixed through a specific process controlled by accountants, not software developers. Random devs being able to change data in the live system, as actually happened, is absolutely unforgivable.

[sTeamTraen]

There is no evidence that Fujitsu's interventions were causing the actual shortfall.

Rather, there were shitloads of bugs, some of which managed to come to the attention of Fujitsu, who then flailed around firefighing them , with no proper control...

....and therefore the POs mantra that Horizon was infallible was complete and utter bollocks.

So basically (if I've understood correctly), if Fujitsu hadn't been fixing lots of problems overnight, the "theft" problem could have appeared to be 10x worse. But they could presumably only fix transactions where they had enough peripheral information to reconstruct what should have happened. Lots would have slipped through the cracks.

And I can easily see how this could be spun from "Yes, there are lots of bugs" to "Yes, there are lots of bugs, but our hard-working techs fix every bad transaction overnight, so anything that is left is fraud".

Gotta disagree with this. The only access Fujitsu should have had to the live database was for code updates through an authorised procedure. These should never have changed any data held in the database. Any anomalies in the data should have been fixed through a specific process controlled by accountants, not software developers. Random devs being able to change data in the live system, as actually happened, is absolutely unforgivable.

Do we know they were devs, as opposed to data centre ops staff?

[noggins]

But,, of course Fujitsu could alter accounts. You can't design and run a database without super-duper-admin rights.
The issue is the governance of the access.

Gotta disagree with this. The only access Fujitsu should have had to the live database was for code updates through an authorised procedure. These should never have changed any data held in the database. Any anomalies in the data should have been fixed through a specific process controlled by accountants, not software developers. Random devs being able to change data in the live system, as actually happened, is absolutely unforgivable.

On reflection you are right.

The wider point is that the POs response to questions on the reliability wasn't “bugs and discrepancies are resolved by [insert industry standard processes] “ but “INCONCEIVABLE !!”

[Stranger Mouse]

More fun in Channel 4 tonight.

Thread here but for me the link isn’t working https://x.com/channel4news/status/17751 ... 80547?s=61

[jimbob]

More fun in Channel 4 tonight.

Thread here but for me the link isn’t working https://x.com/channel4news/status/17751 ... 80547?s=61

Non twitter link from within that tweet
https://www.channel4.com/news/exclusive ... appearence

[Stranger Mouse]

More fun in Channel 4 tonight.

Thread here but for me the link isn’t working https://x.com/channel4news/status/17751 ... 80547?s=61

Non twitter link from within that tweet
https://www.channel4.com/news/exclusive ... appearence

Strange that link started working for me shortly after I posted. I think it was their end

[jimbob]

More fun in Channel 4 tonight.

Thread here but for me the link isn’t working https://x.com/channel4news/status/17751 ... 80547?s=61

Non twitter link from within that tweet
https://www.channel4.com/news/exclusive ... appearence

Strange that link started working for me shortly after I posted. I think it was their end

B...b...but that would only be plausible if the owner of Twitter had turned into a dumpster fire with dodgy IT support.

[Stranger Mouse]

Non twitter link from within that tweet
https://www.channel4.com/news/exclusive ... appearence

Strange that link started working for me shortly after I posted. I think it was their end

B...b...but that would only be plausible if the owner of Twitter had turned into a dumpster fire with dodgy IT support.

lol. To be fair to Musk, if I remember correctly it came up with page not found on the Channel 4 site. Musk is still a tw.t though.

[snoozeofreason]

Before Horizon was introduced, some sub-postmasters used a system known as Capture. Computer Weekly reports that Jason Coyne a digital forensic investigator who testified to failings in the Horizon System over 20 years ago has offered to analyse the Capture system, which has also been implicated in potential wrongful convictions. Campaigners have apparently obtained floppy disks containing the Capture Software.

[jimbob]

FFS.

https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/post- ... 93.article

Lawyers for the Post Office arranged a secret meeting with a judge to prevent disclosure to defence solicitors in a criminal trial, the Post Office Inquiry heard yesterday. Solicitor Martin Smith and his barrister colleague Simon Clarke met the judge at Birmingham Crown Court in 2013 on the eve of a trial of a sub-postmaster accused of theft.

The prosecuting lawyers applied for public interest immunity on the report, successfully persuading the judge that the defence solicitors should not be made aware of it.

‘Such a [note] may well invite a request for disclosure of the test results,’ Smith had emailed a colleague. ‘There may also be a risk that [Thomas] will suggest the investigation was inadequate or incomplete.’

Um yes?

[Tristan]

Post office lawyer tries to claim that in 2010 he didn't know how to save a document. https://x.com/ruddick/status/1786346584122216492

[tenchboy]

Post office lawyer tries to claim that in 2010 he didn't know how to save a document. https://x.com/ruddick/status/1786346584122216492

Yeah, I saw that I just wanted so badly to be the chappy asking the questions so as to be able t say, "Mate! Even my mum knows how to save a document" And then go on to ask who saved all the other documents on his computer and also whether he disclosed this failing at his job interview.