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by rramadass 684 days ago
And therein lies my "theory" that the Austrian (mentioned in the article) was actually a double-agent working for the Soviets and was letting himself be "used" so that he can get complete systems with some deformities/problems to the Soviets and then have them reverse engineer the system while correcting/fixing the problem parts/deformities. Similar to how technicians (particularly in Asia/Africa) in many industries without any formal engineering knowledge learn to fix Cars/Bikes/Smartphones/etc (many of them are even uneducated). Of course with truly advanced technology like microchips/etc. it may be extremely difficult but with the resources of an entire state behind you may not be impossible.

As Sherlock Holmes says in "The Adventure of the Dancing Men"; “What one man can invent, another can discover.”
1 comments
Cupertino95014 684 days ago
> have them reverse engineer the system while correcting/fixing the problem parts/deformities

So you're assuming the Austrian actually knows what the US deformed? Why would they tell him?

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rramadass 684 days ago
No, you understood it wrong. He could just be the conduit for goods and nothing more. It is for the entire Scientific/Engineering establishment in the USSR and its allies to figure that out.

One way might be by simple black-box behaviour testing of gizmo-x received in the USSR vs. the same done in a legal company in the US/Europe/Japan and then narrowing down the problem.

I will bet my bottom dollar that the same thing is going on even today (w.r.t. the usual suspects like China/Iran/etc.) given how crucial Technology has become to maintaining Economic/Military superiority.

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Cupertino95014 684 days ago
OK, that was a reasonable reading of "he can get complete systems with some deformities/problems to the Soviets and then have them reverse engineer the system while correcting/fixing the problem parts/deformities"

All he could possibly know is "this thing may be sabotaged." I suppose that is some help to the Soviets.

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akira2501 683 days ago
Chips are not impossible to reverse engineer. Chips have specifications. It's not at all hard to figure out why a particular chip does not meet it's stated specifications.

This whole story is based upon the ignorance of the general public in how manufacture and how silicon processes work. It's designed to convince you that "intelligence" agencies are doing _anything_ worthwhile when in reality they're playing childish games and putting third parties lives at risk to do it.

It's so boring and tiring to read crap like this.

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