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Next > The Good Trojan A security battle is ensuing between
operating system proponents for Windows, Linux, Mac and others. Open Source code
like Linux is coming under attack for being too vulnerable to subversive hackers
that can slip in latent code for malicious exploitation at a later date. Like with
any other panel of "experts," nobody agrees on who is right, but all agree that
these systems being integrated into combat systems must be absolutely secure. Lest
you be tempted to think nothing serious could ever happen, consider the famous "Farewell
Dossier" report. During the 70s and 80s, Soviet spies were on a rampage stealing
secrets from the U.S. and other Western countries. In 1982, the CIA slipped some
Trojan horse code, known as "Line X," into some software known to be targeted by
the spies. "Farewell" was the Soviet engineer assigned to analyze the stolen code.
Line X operatives deployed the buggy software on a Siberian gas pipeline project.
To make a long story short, the hidden code eventually caused a 3-kiloton blast
still considered to be the most ferocious non-nuclear explosion and fire ever seen
from space. QED.
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