Almost 16,000 cases of coronavirus in the UK went unreported because of a glitch caused by an Excel spreadsheet, it has been reported. Public Health England (PHE) said 15,841 daily COVID-19 cases between 25 September and 2 October had been left out of UK totals. The error has caused delays in tracking the contacts of people who tested positive. On Monday, the Press Association (PA) news agency reported that the problem was caused by a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet reaching its maximum file size.
Commenting on the news are the following cybersecurity experts:
Experts Comments
The best approach would be to select the appropriate technologies for the job.
Don't be fooled by the slight improvement in weather... in a minute we'll find those extra raindrops were misplaced in an excel file in the cloud and come thundering down on us... I make no apologies for mixing metaphors! If indeed the Government was using Excel to track COVID cases, it is a wholly inappropriate use of the tool. Excel is a very good spreadsheet, but it has its limitations and in no way ever intended to be used as a database. Procedures around using end user-developed.....Read More
Additional problems around spreadsheets are around resiliency and potential data loss.
Excel is an excellent tool to report and filter data. It’s not unheard of that organisations today use common tools to process data using desktop tools, however, it’s evident that there is a limit to how much data these tools can handle before it becomes unresponsive and potentially produce reports that may have missing data.
Desktop tools such as Excel should not be used for large datasets, and investment should be made into technology that can securely process large datasets to ensure.....Read More
To see that it’s still in use and has hit the limits of its capacity is more than embarrassing.
How storing information on medical information in excel files which are then circulated to a wide audience can be seen as anything apart from the outmost temporary solutions is surprising given the rather strict opinions on data privacy voiced within the European Union over the last few years. It is not strange if this was the solution day one, week one, month one, but to see that it’s still in use and has hit the limits of its capacity is more than embarrassing. And to see that the solution.....Read More
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@David Kennefick, Solutions Architect, provides expert commentary for "dot your expert comments" at @Information Security Buzz.
"Track and trace is very new for most countries...."
#infosec #cybersecurity #isdots
https://informationsecuritybuzz.com/expert-comments/microsoft-excel-spreadsheet-error-leads-to-major-covid-uk-stats-mishap-cybersecurity-experts-have-their-say