Was a tech support call made, mid-coup, to help unlock an armoury?

Question

I'm trying to verify an urban tech legend I heard a few years ago.

Some poor SuperMac TechSport got a call from some middle level official... from the legitimate government of Trinidad. The fellow spoke very good English, and fairly calmly described the problem.

It seemed there was a coup attempt in progress at that moment. However, the national armoury for that city was kept in the same building as the Legislature, and it seems that there was a combination lock on the door to the armoury. Of the people in the capitol city that day, only the Chief of the Capitol Guard and the Chief Armourer knew the combination to the lock, and they had already been killed.

So, this officer of the government of Trinidad continued, the problem is this. The combination to the lock is stored in a file on the Macintosh, but the file has been encrypted with the SuperMac product called Sentinel. Was there any chance, he asked, that there was a "back door" to the application, so they could get the combination, open the armoury door, and defend the Capitol Building and the legitimately elected government of Trinidad against the insurgents?

Source: eff.org, but this has spread for years, dating back to at least 1995

Did this happen?

Answer 1

The story doesn't quite add up:

• yes there was Supermac Software product called Sentinel, which did indeed use DES encryption;
• however in time frame when this could occur, there was only a failed coup attempt in Trinidad in 1990.

That night, the legitimate government of Trinidad fell. One of the BBC reporters mentioned that the casualties seemed heaviest in the capitol, where for some reason, there seemed to be little return fire from the government forces.

This doesn't make much sense, as the only places they stormed were in the capitol. And most people were taken hostage, not killed.

Also note that the original story is in the category "Folklore/Humor", which doesn't speak very high of it's credibility.

Answer 2

As the author of Sentinel I can confirm that in the summer of 1990 Supermac tech support did receive a call from someone claiming to be a representative of the government of Trinidad. The story largely matches my recollection including the notion that the keys to the armory were encrypted. I was skeptical at first but took it a little more seriously when I listened to the BBC world service later that evening.