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While I am not implying these were used as such, another purpose these complicated sequences can hold is as a code trap for clone detection.

Code Traps:

https://arcadeblogger.com/2019/06/29/atari-centipedes-hidden...

And the discussion here a month ago about code traps: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20312256

Along similar lines in both the digital and non-digital world people would include false landmarks and roads on maps to detect copying, since while facts are not protected, fake places are https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trap_street




When I was at Malwarebytes we would seed our engine with "malware" that was just programs we created on an airgapped machine so we could see when other companies were just blatantly copying us.

We actually discovered that one Chinese company was- https://forums.malwarebytes.com/topic/29681-iobit-steals-mal...


Interesting, how did Malwarebytes started (the business), how did they aqcuaire the database initially?


It was originally started on a web forum by a few people making it as a hobby, but it got popular quickly. The database was all built in house.


Slightly related: The "stone louse" is a trap like this, too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_louse


Oh, that was actually funny IMO :-)


Dictionaries make up words for this reason...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-...





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