

The Hunt for the Kill Switch (2008) - TriinT
http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/design/the-hunt-for-the-kill-switch

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frisco
Highly reminiscent of Ken Thompson's "Trust in Computing" speech where he
talks about how you can't trust anything you have written yourself from
scratch, down to the compiler, even if source is available: <http://cm.bell-
labs.com/who/ken/trust.html>

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Dove
Interesting. I'd expect that sort of thing to mainly be an issue with
multinational platforms, like JSF, but the DARPA writeup makes it sound like a
more widespread problem.

The Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations are looser about it than I
expected, too. There's a whole section dealing with foreign suppliers, but the
only absolute ban I see on a foreign source is for China:
[http://www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/dars/dfars/html/current/225_7.ht...](http://www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/dars/dfars/html/current/225_7.htm)

That's the evolving battlespace for you, I guess. Wars fought by hackers and
robots--coming soon to a theatre near you! It seems weird that such science
fiction is already real.

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robryan
At least most electronics can be made very small, as in they could always
develop a backup system from a different contractor if something was important
enough.

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trezor
Mix this kinda stuff with corporate espionage and corrupt insiders, and you
are not too far away from the future described by (among others) William
Gibson where corporations, not nations, rule and fight wars.

