Hacker News Reader

HNHacker News

Top New Best Ask Show Jobs

Comment by kimlelly | Hacker News Reader

Full thread

kimlelly·

1. Decentralized (real p2p, no central servers)

2. Encrypted communication

3. Easier to set up than encrypted email: Install -> Exchange "certificates" -> Done.

BONUS: it's open-source!

(Which means everybody is free to inspect the source code, which means any potential backdoors can 1) be discovered 2) removed -> impossible with Windows and Mac operating systems/software)

View on HN

No, it is not impossible to discover backdoors and vulnerabilities in closed-source Windows and Mac software; there's a cottage industry of third parties doing that on a pro-bono basis.

Well, I guess, the source code sooner or later is accessible to _somebody_ at _some_ development stage or in _some_ version.

But can we really trust companies that work with the NSA to sell us the version compiled _without_ the backdoors?

Plus, always keep in mind that these companies have lied to us about PRISM - with straight faces.

While it is not technically impossible to discover backdoors in closed source software, I'd say it's essential for me to trust crypto-software that it is open source.

That being said, it is probably feasible to hide a backdoor even in open source software. But it is still easier in closed source software.

By "closed-source", I meant "researchers don't have the source code". And yet they find vulnerabilities anyways. It's not 1995 anymore. Vulnerability researchers tend to have pretty good tools for reading assembly.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com