Zach Dorfman, a San Francisco-based national security reporter, dives into the shadowy world of espionage in Silicon Valley. He reveals how the Bay Area has become a hotspot for high-tech espionage, tracing Cold War tactics used to disrupt Soviet computing. Discussions also cover the ethical dilemmas of espionage operations and the insider threats tech companies face today. Dorfman highlights the intricate relationship between U.S. and Chinese intelligence and how corporate infiltrations complicate global security.
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FBI's Cold War Chip Sabotage
FBI agent Rick Smith led a covert sabotage operation in the 1980s targeting Soviet microchip imports from Silicon Valley.
They sold tampered chips and production equipment, severely disrupting Soviet computing advances for years.
insights INSIGHT
Soviet Chip Industry Struggles
Soviets relied on stolen Western microelectronics to bolster their military and space programs in the 1980s.
The sabotage campaign aimed to prevent Soviets from developing an indigenous chip industry, which largely failed.
insights INSIGHT
Subtle Tech Sabotage Tactics
Sabotage was subtle, designed to mimic natural wear or delivery damage to avoid detection.
The operation balanced effectiveness with plausible deniability to maintain cover for years.
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In 'State of War,' James Risen provides a detailed and explosive account of the CIA's role in the Bush administration's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The book exposes a range of scandals, including domestic spying, abuses of power, and the politicization of intelligence. Risen draws on extensive interviews with key figures in the national security community to reveal how the Bush administration's policies led to significant failures and misdeeds, including the transformation of Afghanistan into a 'narco-state' and the mishandling of intelligence related to Iran's nuclear program. The book also highlights the administration's disregard for checks and balances and its radical politicization of intelligence[3][4][5].
Silicon Valley couldn’t be farther from the confines of Langley or Fort Meade, let alone Beijing or Moscow. Yet, the verdant foothills of suburban sprawl that encompass the Bay Area have played host to some of the most technically sophisticated espionage missions the world has ever seen. As the home of pivotal technologies from semiconductors to databases, artificial intelligence and more, no place has a greater grip on the technological edge than California — and every nation and their intelligence services want access.
It just so happens that almost no national security reporter sits on this beat. Nearly all cover the sector from Washington, or in rare cases New York. All except one that is: Zach Dorfman. Zach has been driving the coverage of the technical side of espionage operations for years, and his pathbreaking scoops about China’s unraveling of the CIA’s network of operatives in the early 2010s were widely read in DC officialdom. Now, he’s published two blockbuster features, one in Politico Magazine on the FBI’s attempts to intercede in the chip trade between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. at the height of the Cold War in the 1980s, and the other in Rolling Stone on a deep-cover agent and the very human consequences of state-to-state skullduggery.
Zach and host Danny Crichton talk about Silicon Valley’s history in industrial espionage, the tricky mechanics of intercepting and disabling chip shipments to the Soviet Union, why the U.S.S.R. was so keen on learning the market dynamics of computing in America, the risks for today’s companies around insider threats, Wirecard and Jan Marsalek and finally, some thoughts on Xi Jinping and how China’s rollup of the CIA’s mainland intelligence network affected his leadership of America’s current greatest adversary.
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