Logic Bomb

Related Concepts

Insider Threat

Definition

The term logic bomb refers to an attack by an inside adversary who plants code to automatically trigger some negate action at some point later in time.

Background

The term insider threat refers to the general problem posed when the adversary may be internal to an organization, already within the security perimeter and possessing privileges that may be abused.

Theory and Applications

Within this problem space, one type of adversary is a disgruntled employee angry about termination. Such an adversary may carry out an attack by (while still having appropriate privileges) planting code to automatically trigger some negate action at some point later in time (perhaps when the adversary’s privileges have been removed). The term logic bomb refers to such attacks (and has also been used to describe similar attacks carried by parties other than disgruntled insiders, such as national intelligence operators).

Claburn [1] discusses a recent logic bomb...