OT: reports of a Trojan horse in the Arrow project

[Gadi Evron <ge () egotistical reprehensible net>]

The Arrow is a counter-ballistic missiles project run by Israel.

There have been reports the past couple of days about a Trojan horse in 
the code, inserted by Egypt. As one of the Israelis on the list I feel 
obligated to provide with some facts. It's an interesting story in any case.

You can find the Hebrew URL at: 
http://www.maariv.co.il/channels/1/ART/648/326.html.

I am willing to translate it if anyone is really interested.

Here are some facts:

Some MOTIF code that was done by IBM Israel was being debugged in the 
Cairo (Egypt) office. The IDF has not commented on this and IBM claims 
that no restricted code was shared.
Some reports claim Egypt inserted a Trojan horse into that code, I've 
seen no facts that verify that, so I doubt it for now. I'll post more 
information as it becomes available.

That's all there is to it as far as facts go right now. Some code was 
being debugged in the Egypt office and that's about it. This fact raises 
the concern for such a Trojan horse existing, but there is a long way to 
go from such concerns to actual facts.

It is clearly a security fluke on Israel's side that such a 
relationship, on any level, existed, but no biggie.

What Trojan horse? Talk about hype. I'll see if I can find out some more 
facts.

This comes to show once again how security is not only about firewalls 
and IDS systems. Controlling who has access to what and how information 
is managed is just as if not more important.

    Gadi Evron.