> isn't a very effective way to do that kind of espionage
If you know very little about someone, just examining their laundry will tell you quite a bit about them. So 'effective' is really relative.
And, I'd argue that just having their hands on a physical component gives them the ability to introduce purposeful exotic flaws which they can exploit, or just ensure failure sometime in the future yet aren't detectable by standard quality control methods. Kinda like 'zero-day' code flaws that are kept in ones back pocket until needed.
If you know very little about someone, just examining their laundry will tell you quite a bit about them. So 'effective' is really relative.
And, I'd argue that just having their hands on a physical component gives them the ability to introduce purposeful exotic flaws which they can exploit, or just ensure failure sometime in the future yet aren't detectable by standard quality control methods. Kinda like 'zero-day' code flaws that are kept in ones back pocket until needed.