{"id":853,"date":"2025-05-20T14:21:55","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T14:21:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moatacademy.com\/blog\/?p=853"},"modified":"2025-05-20T14:22:44","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T14:22:44","slug":"devastating-effects-of-software-errors-a-wake-up-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moatacademy.com\/blog\/2025\/05\/20\/devastating-effects-of-software-errors-a-wake-up-call\/","title":{"rendered":"Devastating Effects of Software Errors: A Wake-Up Call"},"content":{"rendered":"

Technology is designed to make life easier: to automate processes, save time, and reduce human effort.
\nBut behind every line of code is a human, and behind every system is a person who relies on it.<\/p>\n

As software developers, our work is more than creating features.
\nIt is noble, and it carries serious responsibility.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Technical Glitch, A Life Lost<\/h2>\n

Following the release of candidates\u2019 results by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) in Nigeria, a 19-year-old student tragically ended her life after receiving what she believed was a poor UTME (Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination) score: she thought her dreams were over. Her confidence was shattered.\u00a0This is heartbreaking.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not until days after the release of the result that investigation into JAMB\u2019s system revealed that the system could not be trusted due to\u00a0technical error<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Not a hack.
\nNot a breach.
\nJust\u2026 a glitch.<\/p>\n

But the consequence? Irreversible<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

The Weight We Carry as Developers<\/strong><\/h2>\n

At\u00a0Moat Academy<\/a><\/strong>, when teaching software development, we lay emphasis on the need to test edge cases, understand the \u201cwhy\u201d beneath every abstractions and know the impact of every decision made in the code. \u00a0It is not until one starts building systems for safety-critical industries like airline, health monitoring etc that security be given its place because the truth is:\u00a0every piece of software is\u00a0safety-critical\u00a0as long as\u00a0real people are using it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The platforms we<\/a> build hold the dreams, data, time, and dignity of real users: even the smallest bug can have devastating consequences.<\/p>\n

Se<\/strong>curity <\/strong>has long be classified <\/strong>as a \u201cnon-functional requirement\u201d<\/strong>, much like visual design or UX enhancements.\u00a0How can security be a \u2018nice to have\u2019 ? optional ? No, It must be central to how we build<\/strong>!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Avoiding the Glitch<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Some 8 years ago when Moat Academy was founded, one of the challenges in the software industry we sought to address was the proliferation of software developers who \u2018created applications\u2019 through a copy-and-paste approach \u2013 \u00a0code monkeys<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0who simply copy insecure and unvalidated codes from online forums and use indiscriminately because they either do not have a deep understanding or are not aware of security best practices in application development.<\/p>\n

Now, in the era of vibe coding, the conversation must shift even further.\u00a0We must teach developers to understand the building blocks<\/strong>\u00a0of software, to explore why things work<\/strong>, because that is how innovators and creators are born!<\/p>\n

The software we build has real consequences; it can determine:\u00a0who gets admitted to school, who gets hired, who gets credit, who feels empowered and who feels invisible, we can not afford to leave the fate our users in the hands of LLM prompts.<\/p>\n

The tragedy surrounding the JAMB result is a reminder that all \u201ctechnical glitches\u201d must be investigated<\/strong>\u00a0and where necessary, people must be held accountable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why data protection regulations like the GDPR<\/strong>\u00a0mandate disclosure of security breaches.
\nTransparency and accountability help us grow, improve, and restore public trust.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Technology is designed to make life easier: to automate processes, save time, and reduce human effort. But behind every line of code is a human,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":854,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-moat-opinions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moatacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moatacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moatacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moatacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moatacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=853"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/moatacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":856,"href":"https:\/\/moatacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853\/revisions\/856"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moatacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moatacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moatacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moatacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}