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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>time bomb</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../T.html" title="T"/><link rel="previous" href="tiger-team.html" title="tiger team"/><link rel="next" href="time-sink.html" title="time sink"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">time bomb</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="tiger-team.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">T</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="time-sink.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="time-bomb"/><dt xmlns="" id="time-bomb"><b>time bomb</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> A subspecies of <a href="../L/logic-bomb.html"><i class="glossterm">logic bomb</i></a> that is triggered
by reaching some preset time, either once or periodically. There are
numerous legends about time bombs set up by programmers in their employers'
machines, to go off if the programmer is fired or laid off and is not
present to perform the appropriate suppressing action periodically.</p><p>Interestingly, the only such incident for which we have been pointed
to documentary evidence took place in the Soviet Union in 1986! A
disgruntled programmer at the Volga Automobile Plant (where the Fiat clones
called Ladas were manufactured) planted a time bomb which, a week after
he'd left on vacation, stopped the entire main assembly line for a day.
The case attracted lots of attention in the Soviet Union because it was the
first cracking case to make it to court there. The perpetrator got a
suspended sentence of 3 years in jail and was barred from future work as a
programmer.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="tiger-team.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../T.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="time-sink.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">tiger team </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> time sink</td></tr></table></div></body></html>