Because you could defeat your enemy if you sabotaged their components! Say you were selling op-amps or oscillators you knew were going to be used in warfare. Yo

Because you could defeat your enemy if you sabotaged their components! Say you were selling op-amps or oscillators you knew were going to be used in warfare. You could burn in an "easter egg" where they shut down if they received a particular RF pulse (or drifted wildly if they didn't receive some covert 'keep working' message). It would be a disaster.