It will be interesting to see or find out just where the cracks are. Obviously at this time, its just a guess. However, as a GUESS and based on experience dealing with fastener issues in large parts on 707 and 767 ( 707 that had been in service for a long time ) and tooling for 767-here is my SWAG based on the relatively low key descriptions.
A) The cracks are probably around or spreading from Fastener holes, probably those drilled " by hand" during the LEAN manufacturing process which are less than about 3/8 in diameter.
B) As such there is of course an argument that the crack would simply progress to the next hole in the pattern ( since drilling a small hole at the ' end ' of such crack is considered to be a ' crack stopper ' - which is true for a lot of ' sheet metal ' issues.
C) again , just a guess, but for 40 plus years, thre has been available and used a three to four step process to prevent such cracks, which can be done for all sizes of hole, even large holes during fabrication while still in large tooling- drill plates , etc.
D) in general- the steps are 1) drill a hole slightly smaller than final size 2) insert a thin sleeve into hole 3) insert a special mandrel such that when pulled back thru the hole it expands the sleeve and hole. 4) Ream the hole which will usually be slightly out of round to final size.
On assembly, insert bolt as a tight fit.
E) in some cases and sizes, the same process can be used without a sleeve but with a expanding mandrel.
F) This leaves a major prestress around the hole and provides a significant improvement in fatigue life.
The process was patented by Boeing in the late 1960, and a local firm called Fatigue technology was founded- developed from the previous firm called Industrial Wire and metal forming as I recall. And major first use ( from memory ) was on AWACS.
The process- tooling has been the subject of several related patents, and is still used by virtually all aircraft manufacturers
It can be used to prevent or stop cracks from further progress.
Again MY SWAG is that to save time some $$$ - or due to a temporary lack of sleeves or just plain skipping the sequence ( hard to detect when inspection is only on final hole size )
So depending on location and accessibility, the fix would be to remove bolt, expand hole, ream hole, insert new oversize bolt and voila, a terminating fix.
Just have to wait and see- If someone has access to documentation as to real issue and location, would be interesting to see how close I came