When Software Crosses a Line

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016 | IEEE SOFTWARE 29 LIKE MANY PEOPLE, we’ve been following closely the rapidly unfolding story on the “defeat” software at Germany’s giant automotive company, VW. This, we believe, adds a new dimension to our original questions, “Software: What’s in it and what’s it in?”1—particularly, “What’s hidden in it, and how many people knew?” It would appear that aside from the normal and burgeoning functionality in the tens of millions of lines of code embedded in modern automotive systems,2 in some cases there might be code intended to deceive. The question is, when does a feature cross the line from what lawyers call harmless “advertiser’s puff” to outright deceit?