State-Piracy
In the early 1980s, the Soviet Union was completing the construction of a giant gas pipeline connecting the Urengoye field with the central part of the country. To control the colossal system, software was required, which the USSR did not have. The T-Office of the KGB came to the rescue, whose employees simply stole the program in the West. Pay for it had a high price.
I must say that the KGB was engaged in industrial espionage very actively and very successfully. In technical terms, the Soviet Union was a highly developed power. However, in some ways we seriously lagged behind the West - primarily in the field of microelectronics and computer technologies. To compensate for this gap, the KGB organized an extensive agent network, supplying our country with many technological secrets. In 1981, French President Francois Mitterrand handed over to Ronald Reagan a number of documents that described in detail the activities of Soviet spies introduced into American companies. The source of this information was Vladimir Ippolitovich Vetrov, who worked in the “T Office” - the KGB department, which was engaged in external scientific and technical intelligence, or simply speaking, industrial espionage.
Since 1980, Vladimir Vetrov supplied the French agents with copies of the papers that passed through his department. In total, he handed over to Western intelligence more than 4 thousand documents. Of these, it became known that a significant number of industrial spies come to the United States as part of official delegations. For example, during a visit to a Boeing plant, Soviet "scientists" attached pieces of adhesive tape to the soles of their shoes to collect small metal samples and dust. The scale of industrial espionage performed by the KGB shook the American leadership - the Russians were able to borrow a huge number of technologies related to radar, semiconductor devices, computers and heavy engineering. According to experts, in general, Soviet intelligence successfully obtained up to 2/3 of the information required from them.
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Instead of simply arresting and deporting all the uncovered agents, the CIA and the FBI launched a massive disinformation "project." A lot of drawings were prepared containing information about space shuttles, invisible fighters and other high-tech facilities of interest to the KGB. They looked very convincing, but at the same time contained a lot of mistakes. The destructive changes were also made to the software necessary for managing production processes. Soon the spoiled data penetrated the Soviet industry and began to do their dirty work. Tractor production lines began to unexpectedly rise, the number of accidents at chemical plants increased dramatically, and the aircraft design bureaucracy stalled.
In the midst of these events, the Soviet government asked the United States to sell the USSR a computer program for managing the gas pipeline. After America refused the request, it was decided to steal the program. Americans have learned from Vetrov about these plans beforehand and managed to prepare a special “modified” version of the program. At first, she worked perfectly flawlessly and did not cause any suspicion among the engineers who serviced the gas pipeline. However, a few weeks after launch, the secret section of the code created by the CIA was activated in it. The Trojan program disguised as an automatic system test began to gradually increase the pressure in the pipe to unacceptably high values.
In the summer of 1982, American intelligence satellites witnessed a colossal explosion somewhere in the Siberian wilderness. Its capacity was 3 kilotons - for comparison, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima was only 4 times more powerful. Initially, the incident was interpreted as a test of a nuclear bomb, but an analysis of the situation showed that this assumption is incorrect. The fact is that the satellites have not registered an electromagnetic burst that accompanies any atomic explosion. The CIA hastened to reassure the military, explaining to them that there was nothing to worry about - it was “just” a gas pipeline exploded. Fortunately, there were no casualties, since the accident occurred in a completely deserted area. Nevertheless, she hit hard enough on the Soviet economy.
In December 1982, the traitor Vetrov was arrested, charged with high treason and sentenced to death. The true reason for the explosion on the gas pipeline became known to our special services only 14 years later, when the relevant archives were declassified in the United States. Today, this story is particularly relevant, once again recalling that the use of pirated software can lead to very, very serious consequences!
Source: www.popmech.ru/part/?articleid=1889&rubricid=15
I must say that the KGB was engaged in industrial espionage very actively and very successfully. In technical terms, the Soviet Union was a highly developed power. However, in some ways we seriously lagged behind the West - primarily in the field of microelectronics and computer technologies. To compensate for this gap, the KGB organized an extensive agent network, supplying our country with many technological secrets. In 1981, French President Francois Mitterrand handed over to Ronald Reagan a number of documents that described in detail the activities of Soviet spies introduced into American companies. The source of this information was Vladimir Ippolitovich Vetrov, who worked in the “T Office” - the KGB department, which was engaged in external scientific and technical intelligence, or simply speaking, industrial espionage.
Since 1980, Vladimir Vetrov supplied the French agents with copies of the papers that passed through his department. In total, he handed over to Western intelligence more than 4 thousand documents. Of these, it became known that a significant number of industrial spies come to the United States as part of official delegations. For example, during a visit to a Boeing plant, Soviet "scientists" attached pieces of adhesive tape to the soles of their shoes to collect small metal samples and dust. The scale of industrial espionage performed by the KGB shook the American leadership - the Russians were able to borrow a huge number of technologies related to radar, semiconductor devices, computers and heavy engineering. According to experts, in general, Soviet intelligence successfully obtained up to 2/3 of the information required from them.
')
Instead of simply arresting and deporting all the uncovered agents, the CIA and the FBI launched a massive disinformation "project." A lot of drawings were prepared containing information about space shuttles, invisible fighters and other high-tech facilities of interest to the KGB. They looked very convincing, but at the same time contained a lot of mistakes. The destructive changes were also made to the software necessary for managing production processes. Soon the spoiled data penetrated the Soviet industry and began to do their dirty work. Tractor production lines began to unexpectedly rise, the number of accidents at chemical plants increased dramatically, and the aircraft design bureaucracy stalled.
In the midst of these events, the Soviet government asked the United States to sell the USSR a computer program for managing the gas pipeline. After America refused the request, it was decided to steal the program. Americans have learned from Vetrov about these plans beforehand and managed to prepare a special “modified” version of the program. At first, she worked perfectly flawlessly and did not cause any suspicion among the engineers who serviced the gas pipeline. However, a few weeks after launch, the secret section of the code created by the CIA was activated in it. The Trojan program disguised as an automatic system test began to gradually increase the pressure in the pipe to unacceptably high values.
In the summer of 1982, American intelligence satellites witnessed a colossal explosion somewhere in the Siberian wilderness. Its capacity was 3 kilotons - for comparison, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima was only 4 times more powerful. Initially, the incident was interpreted as a test of a nuclear bomb, but an analysis of the situation showed that this assumption is incorrect. The fact is that the satellites have not registered an electromagnetic burst that accompanies any atomic explosion. The CIA hastened to reassure the military, explaining to them that there was nothing to worry about - it was “just” a gas pipeline exploded. Fortunately, there were no casualties, since the accident occurred in a completely deserted area. Nevertheless, she hit hard enough on the Soviet economy.
In December 1982, the traitor Vetrov was arrested, charged with high treason and sentenced to death. The true reason for the explosion on the gas pipeline became known to our special services only 14 years later, when the relevant archives were declassified in the United States. Today, this story is particularly relevant, once again recalling that the use of pirated software can lead to very, very serious consequences!
Source: www.popmech.ru/part/?articleid=1889&rubricid=15
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/6003/
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