Defensive Computing for Lawyers

A computer foul-up that could cost Barclays millions

Michael Horowitz

Michael Horowitz wrote his first computer program in 1973 and has been a computer nerd ever since. He spent more than 20 years working in an IBM mainframe (MVS) environment. He has worked in the research and development group of a large Wall Street financial company, and has been a technical writer for a mainframe software company.

He teaches a large range of self-developed classes, the underlying theme being Defensive Computing. Michael is an independent computer consultant, working with small businesses and the self-employed. He can be heard weekly on The Personal Computer Show on WBAI.

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Michael Horowitz

Oct. 22, 2008 4:16 a.m. PT

Frank Hayes, writing in Computerworld, does a great job recounting how an Excel to PDF conversion resulted in Barclays Capital making a multi-million dollar mistake in their offering to buy part of Lehman Brothers. In and of itself, it's an interesting story, but Hayes concludes with this advice for using technology:

Keep it simple.
Don't make assumptions.
And never, ever trust tech more than you really have to.

Agreed.

See a summary of all my Defensive Computing postings.