Did software, deliberately programmed by the CIA to fail, hasten the end of the Soviet Union? The Washington Post reports (registration required) that “President Ronald Reagan approved a CIA plan to sabotage the economy of the Soviet Union through covert transfers of technology that contained hidden malfunctions, including software that later triggered a huge explosion… Read More »
AP reports that the State Department’s electronic system for checking every visa applicant for terrorist or criminal history failed worldwide for several hours late Tuesday because of a computer virus, leaving the U.S. government briefly unable to issue visas. The virus crippled the department’s Consular Lookout and Support System, known as CLASS, which contains more… Read More »
Loose Wire — Calling All Suckers By Jeremy Wagstaff from the 11 July 2002 edition of the Far Eastern Economic Review, (c) 2003, Dow Jones & Company, Inc. I wish people would stop being so cynical. Why do they assume that every spam e-mail they receive is a scam? Just because the pitch “Hi,… Read More »