time bomb

4 definitions found

time bomb - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  time bomb
      n 1: a problematic situation that will eventually become
           dangerous if not addressed; "India is a demographic time
           bomb"; "the refugee camp is a ticking bomb waiting to go
           off" [syn: time bomb, ticking bomb]
      2: a bomb that has a detonating mechanism that can be set to go
         off at a particular time [syn: time bomb, infernal   machine
         ]

time bomb - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  time bomb
  
     <software, security> A subspecies of logic bomb 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.
  
     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 3 years in jail.
  
     [Jargon File]
  
     (2001-09-15)
  

time bomb - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  time bomb
   n.
  
     A subspecies of logic bomb 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.
  
     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.
  

time bomb - Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 :

  18 Moby Thesaurus words for "time bomb":
     aerial bomb, antipersonnel bomb, bomb, bombshell, carcass,
     concussion grenade, depth bomb, depth charge, fire bomb,
     gas grenade, grenade, hand grenade, incendiary bomb,
     incendiary grenade, infernal machine, petard, tear-gas grenade,
     wall grenade