Trans-Siberian Pipeline incident

p4radox

p4radox

p4radox

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Bit of a random thread, but I just came across this article:

http://www.fcw.com/print/10_12/news/82709-1.html

It turns out that during the cold war the Americans planted a logic bomb inside some control software. They knew the software was going to be stolen by the Russians and used to control gas flow in a major pipline. The software worked fine for a while, then the pipeline suddenly exploded as the pressures went way above the design limits.

I partiularly liked this part:

"...a KGB operative was sent to penetrate a Canadian software supplier in an attempt to steal the needed codes. U.S. intelligence, tipped by Farewell, responded and — in cooperation with some outraged Canadians — "improved" the software before sending it on. Once in the Soviet Union, computers and software, working together, ran the pipeline beautifully — for a while. But that tranquility was deceptive. Buried in the stolen Canadian goods — the software operating this whole new pipeline system — was a Trojan horse. In order to disrupt the Soviet gas supply, its hard-currency earnings from the West and the internal Russian economy, the pipeline software that was to run the pumps, turbines and valves was programmed to go haywire, after a decent interval, to reset pump speeds and valve settings to produce pressures far beyond those acceptable to the pipeline joints and welds. The result was the most monumental nonnuclear explosion and fire ever seen from space. At the White House, we received warning from our infrared satellites of some bizarre event in the middle of Soviet nowhere. NORAD feared a missile liftoff from a place where no rockets were known to be based. Or perhaps it was a detonation of a small nuclear device."
Click to expand...

Fascinating stuff, and a good lesson for those pesky, thieving Soviets.:p
 
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