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Trojan Kill Switches In Military Technology

Posted by Soulskill on from the rockets-falling-out-of-the-sky dept.

Nrbelex writes "The New York Times reports in this week's Science section that hardware and software trojan kill switches in military devices are an increasing concern, and may have already been used. 'A 2007 Israeli Air Force attack on a suspected, partly-constructed Syrian nuclear reactor led to speculation about why the Syrian air defense system did not respond to the Israeli aircraft. Accounts of the event initially indicated that sophisticated jamming technology was used to blind the radars. Last December, however, a report in an American technical publication, IEEE Spectrum, cited a European industry source in raising the possibility that the Israelis might have used a built-in kill switch to shut down the radars. Separately, an American semiconductor industry executive said in an interview that he had direct knowledge of the operation and that the technology for disabling the radars was supplied by Americans to the Israeli electronic intelligence agency, Unit 8200.'"

6 of 392 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Lesson learned? by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Well, they can't. There's not a chip fab anywhere in Syria. Hell, there aren't even any in the US, anymore.

  2. Re:Lesson learned? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I think this should be a really big wakeup call to european countries that relies 100% on american tech, both on hardware and software.

    I take offense at this, considering that without "American tech" Europe would be Germany. It's not enough that we have to save your bacon, but you want us to pay for your missile defense, and you're still rude.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  3. Re:Lesson learned? by gbjbaanb · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I take offense at that, considering that without British tech, America wouldn't have either radar or jet fighters to jam in the first place and you'd be reading slashdot on a bulletin board transmitted over the telegraph network.

    Oh, except you wouldn't have computers to read them on anyway as that's a British invention too.

    Besides all that, you're an arrogant American, and you're calling someone else rude?

  4. Re:Lesson learned? by gtall · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Yeah, you are right, 'cause the Americans weren't also working on the same stuff...stupid Americans, as soon as they see someone else working on something they stop and give up, right?

  5. Re:Israel beware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    And this is a good thing we should have turned our backs on Israel a long time ago. The middle east might have been a better place if this had happened years ago.

  6. weapons by falconwolf · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    The best proof of this is that small countries buy military technology from larger countries.

    I didn't know Belgium was a large country. Switzerland is also big? As is Israel?

    Falcon

    --
    Should there be a Law?