Ken Thompson, a Unix pioneer, implemented a 'trusting trust' trojan attack in real life, as evidenced by a 1995 Usenet post from Jay Ashworth, who claimed to have personal communications with Thompson. The attack involved a self-reproducing compiler that inserted a trojan horse into the Unix 'login' command. Thompson confirmed the incident in a personal email, stating that the compromised compiler was installed on a machine at Bell Labs and later discovered by the Unix support group. The incident demonstrates the feasibility of Thompson's 'trusting trust' concept, which he initially presented as a thought experiment.