Practical security for 2014 [LWN.net]

Practical security for 2014

Posted Jan 11, 2014 5:01 UTC (Sat) by drag (guest, #31333)
In reply to: Practical security for 2014 by nix
Parent article: Practical security for 2014

There is a longer history then most people realize.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberian_pipeline_sabotage

You would think that the CIA and friends have gotten considerably more sophisticated and experienced in the 30-odd years since then.

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Practical security for 2014

Posted Jan 11, 2014 5:24 UTC (Sat) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link]

I've read about this story in the past and I actually asked people when I worked in Urengoy about it. Nobody could confirm it.

They said, though, that there were quite a few gas explosions - most of them in unpopulated areas because of very poor construction quality in the USSR.

Personally, I think this story is apocryphal. It's very doubtful that a compressor station could have had complicated software. I can certainly believe that the CIA could have sabotaged the turbines themselves (perhaps by introducing a subtle mechanic defect).

Practical security for 2014

Posted Jan 11, 2014 20:21 UTC (Sat) by leoc (guest, #39773) [Link]

I suspect the CIA's ability to plant stories like that in the popular consciousness is far more effective than their ability to actually pull off what the stories describe.