Maybe My Y2K Experience Will Help > Computer chaos feared over 2015’s leap second

Who has two thumbs and spent an awful lot of time becoming an expert on a body of law for an event that never really happened?

Yep, this guy — the event was Y2K!

But, as you can see from the excerpts in the article below, that experience may come in handy after all as the fears and worries sound the same as what we were hearing in 1998 and 1999 …

The year 2015 will have an extra second — which could wreak havoc on the infrastructure powering the Internet.

At 11:59 p.m. on June 30, clocks will count up all the way to 60 seconds. That will allow the Earth’s spin to catch up with atomic time.

The Earth’s spin is gradually slowing down, by about two thousandths of a second per day, but atomic clocks are constant. That means that occasionally years have to be lengthened slightly, to allow the slowing Earth to catch up with the constant clock.

Now, if you’re dying to read my law review article from 1999, here you go: It Ain’t Over ‘Till … A Post-Y2K Analysis of Y2K Litigation & Legislation

If you’d rather read this article, here you go: Computer chaos feared over 2015’s leap second.

 

Published by Shawn E. Tuma

Shawn Tuma is an attorney who is internationally recognized in cybersecurity, computer fraud and data privacy law, areas in which he has practiced for nearly two decades. He is a Partner at Spencer Fane, LLP where he regularly serves as outside cybersecurity and privacy counsel to a wide range of companies from small to midsized businesses to Fortune 100 enterprises. You can reach Shawn by telephone at 972.324.0317 or email him at stuma@spencerfane.com.

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