Perhaps I need a better understanding of what open source means, but how can a program that is openly publishing its code not be super vulnerable to cyber security threats. That’s like a bank publishing exactly how all it’s security works right? Obviously I’m missing something here, so ELI5!
In: 427
Imagine a country like US. Even if you know how their defense work, or where the defenses are located, does not mean that it’s easy to attack them. Even if you know where all the nukes are located, doing a preemptive strike is not easy, because they have radars and sol-air misiles and other systems in place which would make for you impossible to hit said targets.
On the other hand, a country like North Korea is very secretive, but as you can imagine, you could brute-force your way into the country if that would be decided to be necessary. Even if the location of their defence is secret, it is not impenetrable because the defense is not strong enough.
On top of this, imagine that US makes a bet: you can attack me for one week and I will not hit you back. Not only this, if you manage to touch a certain building, I will give you a price. Well, you might find a way to do it, but the damage would be minimal (as it is practice mode), but the country would discover a weak spot which can be hardened (or watched) in case of a real threat. Do this several times and all points which are easy to exploit would be handled. Does not mean that there are new weak spots, just that they are harder and harder to exploit.
Latest Answers