With the linkage of payment systems globally, a failure of any linked system could have waterfall effects to other systems and a disastrous result to the world economy. The scope of the Millennium Bug extends far beyond financial services and beyond the traditional notion of large mainframe processing systems.
Computer systems that control telecommunications, electric utilities, transportation services, and a host of other critical infrastructure systems are vulnerable. The Gartner Group estimates 50 million embedded-system devices worldwide will exhibit Year 2000 problems. Embedded chips are used to control elevators, environmental systems, navigational devices, household appliances, safes and vaults, and on and on.