Not just keeping data safe and secure,
but crucially,

Preventing data from causing harm

Modern systems increasingly use data to make safety-critical decisions. Errors in, or incorrect use of such data, can cause harm to life and/or the environment. Ensuring the safety of data is a complex challenge faced by all industries, and would be enabled by a software tool to facilitate the activities needed for data safety assurance….

There have already been a number of accidents and incidents where data, as distinct from purely software and hardware, has been a major contributory factor. This problem will get worse as our systems become more dependent on data, become more inter-connected, more autonomous, and increasingly use Artificial Intelligence.

In 2013, members of the Safety Critical Systems Club (SCSC) identified the need to treat data as a separate contributor to system safety, in addition to the traditional contributions from hardware and software. 

The Data Safety Initiative Working Group (DSIWG) was formed, with members from many safety-related industries, including Aerospace, healthcare, railways, and roads. The working group has created a “best practice” guidance document, which is now in its 4th edition, and is available for download, and purchase in hard copy from Amazon.

Mission Critical Applications have been members since 2017, with a particular interest in providing software tool support to guide the application and automate the bookkeeping, needed when applying the guidance to a non-trivial project.  We have received grant funding from Lloyd’s Register Foundation to promote data safety as an issue in its own right, and to produce tooling to assist in the application of the guidance.

If you are interested in getting involved in this project, please get in touch with us using the Contact page.