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Trojan horses as competitive response

This is a lovely anecdote. It shows an instance where creative thinking turned the problem (Soviets stealing and replicating American technology during arms race) on its head.

In our complex disinformation scheme, deliberately flawed designs for stealth technology and space defense sent Russian scientists down paths that wasted time and money.
The technology topping the Soviets’ wish list was for computer control systems to automate the operation of the new trans-Siberian gas pipeline. When we turned down their overt purchase order, the K.G.B. sent a covert agent into a Canadian company to steal the software; tipped off by Farewell, we added what geeks call a “Trojan Horse” to the pirated product.
“The pipeline software that was to run the pumps, turbines and valves was programmed to go haywire,” writes Reed, “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 non-nuclear explosion and fire ever seen from space.”
Our Norad monitors feared a nuclear detonation, but satellites that would have picked up its electromagnetic pulse were silent. [the coup] stayed secret because the blast in June 1982, estimated at three kilotons, took place in the Siberian wilderness, with no casualties known. Nor was the red-faced K.G.B. about to complain publicly about being tricked by bogus technology. But all the software it had stolen for years was suddenly suspect, which stopped or delayed the work of thousands of worried Russian technicians and scientists.

And, it is by the way, a good argument for open source software…..

Source: The New York Times, Safire on the Farewell Dossier