Fujitsu bosses knew about Post Office Horizon IT flaws, says insider

Largest industrial IT system in Europe

When it was turned out, Horizon was explained by Fujitsu as the“largest non-military IT system in Europe” About 40,000 Horizon terminals were mounted in all Post Offices throughout the UK. The interface was a touchscreen as well as key-board connected to a COMPUTER under the counter which worked on the Windows NT os. Branch Computers were attached using ISDN to a back-end data processor. The Fujitsu- developed Epos software program on the Computers was composed onto an off-the-shelf system called Riposte.

Our resource claimed the large problem in Horizon was the method information was being contacted Riposte.“Riposte wasn’t really a database, it was a messaging system based on an XML structure where you write messages down into the message store, and then Riposte took care of replicating them,” he claimed.

“The very first point that you need to constantly perform with a system like that is layout as well as concur an information thesaurus as well as a message collection database, primarily to claim: these are the messages that are enabled to be contacted the message shop as well as they all offer the list below feature.

“It’s virtually like an API [application programming interface] to ensure that you have a listing of enabled messages that can all be contacted the right layout with the right material.

“You should also have a layer of software that lies on top of the message store that checks that any application above it which is trying to write a message, conforms to the agreed data dictionary. Otherwise, you can just write freestyle to the message store, which is what they were doing. There was no application interface in there, no agreed data catalogue or anything.”

Computer Weekly additionally spoke with a previous Fujitsu staff member that operated in the Horizon Service Support Centre from 2001. The assistance designer– that additionally intends to stay confidential– identified this brand-new summary of Horizon’s severely developed message shop, including: “Our job was to fix these problems as they arose. We all knew the code wasn’t fit for purpose and needed rewriting. The data dictionary was still being added to when I got there.”

Senior supervisors knew

The most major accusation increased by the designer is that elderly supervisors at Fujitsu knew that a crucial aspect of the Horizon system did not work appropriately as well as can not be taken care of.

For the very first ten years of Horizon’s presence, purchase as well as account information was saved on terminals in each branch prior to being published to a main data source using ISDN. Our resource says this component of the system merely did not function.

“The cash account was a piece of software that sat on the counter NT box, asleep all day,” he claimed. “At completion of the day, or a certain factor in the day, it revived, as well as it went through the message shop from the factor it last completed. It began at a watermark from the other day as well as brushed via every purchase in the message shop, up till the following watermark.

“A lot of the messages in there were nonsense, because there was no data dictionary, there was no API that enforced message integrity. The contents of the message were freehand, you could write whatever you wanted in the code, and everybody did it differently. And then, when you came back three weeks later, you could write it differently again.”

He offered an instance of a message saved formerly when a consumer got a stamp. It was possible that a brand-new message for getting a stamp weeks later on can be a little various.

“When the cash count came along, it found a message it was not expecting and either ignored it, tripped up, or added something it shouldn’t be adding,” he claimed.

In 2015, Computer Weekly reported one more confidential resource that recognized the money composing program as a feasible reason for major issues. He informed us the Post Office was cautioned about the danger of information corruption on the bespoke asynchronous interaction system which sent out messages in between branches as well as the main Horizon set up.

Speaking to Computer Weekly in 2015, the confidential resource informed us: “The asynchronous system did not communicate in real time, but does so using a series of messages that are stored and forwarded, when the network connection is available. This means that messages to and from the centre may trip over each other. It is perfectly possible that, if not treated properly, messages from the centre may overwrite data held locally.”

Four years later on, previous Fujitsu designer Richard Roll created in a witness declaration to the High Court: “The issues with coding in the Horizon system were extensive. Furthermore, the coding issues impacted on transaction data and caused financial discrepancies on the Horizon system at branch level.”

Roll’s proof, which was approved by the court, recommends that the issues with Horizon recognized by our resource had actually not been managed by the time the system went real-time.

Other professionals acquainted with Horizon that Computer Weekly come close to have actually additionally sustained the designer’s cases.

The designer claimed he made his superiors at Fujitsu familiar with the degree of the Epos system issues, informing them clearly that the money account required to be ditched.

“I broke it down and said: you can keep these bits at a push if you have to,” he claimed. “But that bit in the middle, these bits of the engine, the gearbox, you need to throw them away and rebuild them. Starting with the cash account. You’ve got to throw the cash account away and you’ve got to rewrite it.”

Bone of opinion

Our resource claimed Fujitsu’s aversion to take care of this main issue came to be a problem with him He claimed he was supplied much more obligation on the job however declined unless the money account was restored from the ground up. This, he declared, led to him being relocated off the Epos side of the job to end up being Horizon’s LFS [Logistics Feeder Service] group advancement supervisor.

He ended: “It was a prototype that had been bloated and hacked together afterwards for several years, and then pushed screaming and kicking out of the door. It should never have seen the light of day. Never.”

Computer Weekly gotten in touch with Fujitsu, requesting a feedback to the designer’s accusations. An agent for the business claimed: “As a long-term partner to UK public and private sector organisations, we are dedicated to supporting our customers, our employees and the people they serve in the UK. We provided detailed responses to all questions raised by the House of Commons BEIS Select Committee and are continuing to cooperate with the ongoing Post Office Horizon IT inquiry.”

The Post Office claimed it would certainly not be proper to talk about private accusations beyond the existing independent questions as well as the courts.

The Department for Business, Energy as well as Industrial Strategy (BEIS), which holds federal government obligation for the Post Office, claimed it had “established an independent, judge-led inquiry to ensure that lessons are learned, and that concrete changes take place at Post Office Ltd. If anyone has relevant information, we would encourage them to provide it to the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry.”

The Williams questions right into the Post Office Horizon IT rumor is approving proof up until 25 February as well as is because of report in the summer season.

A Computer Weekly examination in 2009 very first disclosed that subpostmasters, that run Post Office branches, were being criticized for unusual monetary losses, which they declared were brought on by mistakes made by the Horizon system. The Post Office refuted this, as well as several subpostmasters were consequently prosecuted for burglary as well as incorrect audit, with jail sentences, social work, rap sheets as well as hefty penalties amongst the oppressions they experienced therefore.

It has actually turned into one of the greatest losing the unborn babies of justice in UK background.