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Well - that's been my point here. Such a thing is simply not possible given the current state of the art, no matter how much money you throw at it and how many clever people you hire.

Even if you devised a perfectly secure system - using quantum signalling, or something - there's still a key on file somewhere, or stuck on a postit note next to someone's desk. Etc.

Even if not, security services will demand a back door, which can be exploited.

Security is relative. Most security is non-existent. A few applications pretend to offer 'almost good enough', with hope rather than certainty.

All information has a market value, and if the cost of breaking security is higher than the value, you're safe, up to a point.

But some hackers like breaking into things just because they can. So 'secure' is pretty much meaningless in absolute terms, and certainly not something you can rely on with any confidence.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Tue Jun 11th, 2013 at 11:22:18 AM EST
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As computing is a fairly new thing, in terms of human endeavors, there may still be a fair bit of wiggle room when thinking about what might be possible or impossible.  Throwing steady, full time employment at people and asking them to think about the problem may be a waste of time if all one is looking at is the final success of e project.  However, this sort of job creation program seems no more harmful or misguided than most, and worse comes to worse, the engineers and programmers so employed, and their families, and they people from whom they purchased goods and services, will have been better off for it.

And even if the project fails in terms of its main goal, its possible that something good may well come of it.  It's a heck of a lot more likely than putting people to work on weapons tech, where success is its own form of failure.

by Zwackus on Wed Jun 12th, 2013 at 12:52:12 AM EST
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