Is it safer to trust software/company that has been hacked in the past?

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Which is better, when you have choices between 2 competing products:



  • First one, which has never been publicly reported about being hacked or having security holes

or



  • Second one, which has had bad days in the past, and was hacked (critical leakage) 1-2 times in recent years (which has been then fixed).

The argument which comes to my mind is to lean toward the 2nd choice. The 1st product developers could become loyal, used to think that their product is not vulnerable and don't much care about that, while the 2nd product's developers & management should definitely be worrying & working hard (if they are competent) on security details and development, to raise their reputation.



What is the stronger argument toward any of them?










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  • 1




    Two points: a) No, the employees of a hacked big company are not working harder etc. In a average corporate setting, the relevant employees wait until management gives them time/money/directions etc. for improving security, and the relevant manager doesn't because he has no idea what they need. Bottom line is that on the long term nothing improves.
    – deviantfan
    1 hour ago







  • 1




    b) A big factor is the reason for being hacked. I'd rather go to someone not noticing the NSA broke in, rather to someone who noticed a grade schooler used an SQL injection to delete all data.
    – deviantfan
    1 hour ago










  • @deviantfan why not you convert these comment into post ? as its nice answer, i will definitely upvote.
    – T.Todua
    1 hour ago











  • I don't think that these information provide sufficient information to decide which product to prefer. A product might not be ever hacked since it is not worth (i.e. nobody uses it) but also because it was designed with security and robustness in mind everywhere. A product might be hacked because the companies/developers don't care and/or have no idea what they are doing or it might be hacked because it is heavily used in important places so an attacker puts lots of effort into hacking it. I therefore propose to close the question as too broad or since answers will be primarily opinion based.
    – Steffen Ullrich
    15 mins ago















up vote
1
down vote

favorite












Which is better, when you have choices between 2 competing products:



  • First one, which has never been publicly reported about being hacked or having security holes

or



  • Second one, which has had bad days in the past, and was hacked (critical leakage) 1-2 times in recent years (which has been then fixed).

The argument which comes to my mind is to lean toward the 2nd choice. The 1st product developers could become loyal, used to think that their product is not vulnerable and don't much care about that, while the 2nd product's developers & management should definitely be worrying & working hard (if they are competent) on security details and development, to raise their reputation.



What is the stronger argument toward any of them?










share|improve this question



















  • 1




    Two points: a) No, the employees of a hacked big company are not working harder etc. In a average corporate setting, the relevant employees wait until management gives them time/money/directions etc. for improving security, and the relevant manager doesn't because he has no idea what they need. Bottom line is that on the long term nothing improves.
    – deviantfan
    1 hour ago







  • 1




    b) A big factor is the reason for being hacked. I'd rather go to someone not noticing the NSA broke in, rather to someone who noticed a grade schooler used an SQL injection to delete all data.
    – deviantfan
    1 hour ago










  • @deviantfan why not you convert these comment into post ? as its nice answer, i will definitely upvote.
    – T.Todua
    1 hour ago











  • I don't think that these information provide sufficient information to decide which product to prefer. A product might not be ever hacked since it is not worth (i.e. nobody uses it) but also because it was designed with security and robustness in mind everywhere. A product might be hacked because the companies/developers don't care and/or have no idea what they are doing or it might be hacked because it is heavily used in important places so an attacker puts lots of effort into hacking it. I therefore propose to close the question as too broad or since answers will be primarily opinion based.
    – Steffen Ullrich
    15 mins ago













up vote
1
down vote

favorite









up vote
1
down vote

favorite











Which is better, when you have choices between 2 competing products:



  • First one, which has never been publicly reported about being hacked or having security holes

or



  • Second one, which has had bad days in the past, and was hacked (critical leakage) 1-2 times in recent years (which has been then fixed).

The argument which comes to my mind is to lean toward the 2nd choice. The 1st product developers could become loyal, used to think that their product is not vulnerable and don't much care about that, while the 2nd product's developers & management should definitely be worrying & working hard (if they are competent) on security details and development, to raise their reputation.



What is the stronger argument toward any of them?










share|improve this question















Which is better, when you have choices between 2 competing products:



  • First one, which has never been publicly reported about being hacked or having security holes

or



  • Second one, which has had bad days in the past, and was hacked (critical leakage) 1-2 times in recent years (which has been then fixed).

The argument which comes to my mind is to lean toward the 2nd choice. The 1st product developers could become loyal, used to think that their product is not vulnerable and don't much care about that, while the 2nd product's developers & management should definitely be worrying & working hard (if they are competent) on security details and development, to raise their reputation.



What is the stronger argument toward any of them?







audit






share|improve this question















share|improve this question













share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited 1 hour ago

























asked 1 hour ago









T.Todua

1,17731019




1,17731019







  • 1




    Two points: a) No, the employees of a hacked big company are not working harder etc. In a average corporate setting, the relevant employees wait until management gives them time/money/directions etc. for improving security, and the relevant manager doesn't because he has no idea what they need. Bottom line is that on the long term nothing improves.
    – deviantfan
    1 hour ago







  • 1




    b) A big factor is the reason for being hacked. I'd rather go to someone not noticing the NSA broke in, rather to someone who noticed a grade schooler used an SQL injection to delete all data.
    – deviantfan
    1 hour ago










  • @deviantfan why not you convert these comment into post ? as its nice answer, i will definitely upvote.
    – T.Todua
    1 hour ago











  • I don't think that these information provide sufficient information to decide which product to prefer. A product might not be ever hacked since it is not worth (i.e. nobody uses it) but also because it was designed with security and robustness in mind everywhere. A product might be hacked because the companies/developers don't care and/or have no idea what they are doing or it might be hacked because it is heavily used in important places so an attacker puts lots of effort into hacking it. I therefore propose to close the question as too broad or since answers will be primarily opinion based.
    – Steffen Ullrich
    15 mins ago













  • 1




    Two points: a) No, the employees of a hacked big company are not working harder etc. In a average corporate setting, the relevant employees wait until management gives them time/money/directions etc. for improving security, and the relevant manager doesn't because he has no idea what they need. Bottom line is that on the long term nothing improves.
    – deviantfan
    1 hour ago







  • 1




    b) A big factor is the reason for being hacked. I'd rather go to someone not noticing the NSA broke in, rather to someone who noticed a grade schooler used an SQL injection to delete all data.
    – deviantfan
    1 hour ago










  • @deviantfan why not you convert these comment into post ? as its nice answer, i will definitely upvote.
    – T.Todua
    1 hour ago











  • I don't think that these information provide sufficient information to decide which product to prefer. A product might not be ever hacked since it is not worth (i.e. nobody uses it) but also because it was designed with security and robustness in mind everywhere. A product might be hacked because the companies/developers don't care and/or have no idea what they are doing or it might be hacked because it is heavily used in important places so an attacker puts lots of effort into hacking it. I therefore propose to close the question as too broad or since answers will be primarily opinion based.
    – Steffen Ullrich
    15 mins ago








1




1




Two points: a) No, the employees of a hacked big company are not working harder etc. In a average corporate setting, the relevant employees wait until management gives them time/money/directions etc. for improving security, and the relevant manager doesn't because he has no idea what they need. Bottom line is that on the long term nothing improves.
– deviantfan
1 hour ago





Two points: a) No, the employees of a hacked big company are not working harder etc. In a average corporate setting, the relevant employees wait until management gives them time/money/directions etc. for improving security, and the relevant manager doesn't because he has no idea what they need. Bottom line is that on the long term nothing improves.
– deviantfan
1 hour ago





1




1




b) A big factor is the reason for being hacked. I'd rather go to someone not noticing the NSA broke in, rather to someone who noticed a grade schooler used an SQL injection to delete all data.
– deviantfan
1 hour ago




b) A big factor is the reason for being hacked. I'd rather go to someone not noticing the NSA broke in, rather to someone who noticed a grade schooler used an SQL injection to delete all data.
– deviantfan
1 hour ago












@deviantfan why not you convert these comment into post ? as its nice answer, i will definitely upvote.
– T.Todua
1 hour ago





@deviantfan why not you convert these comment into post ? as its nice answer, i will definitely upvote.
– T.Todua
1 hour ago













I don't think that these information provide sufficient information to decide which product to prefer. A product might not be ever hacked since it is not worth (i.e. nobody uses it) but also because it was designed with security and robustness in mind everywhere. A product might be hacked because the companies/developers don't care and/or have no idea what they are doing or it might be hacked because it is heavily used in important places so an attacker puts lots of effort into hacking it. I therefore propose to close the question as too broad or since answers will be primarily opinion based.
– Steffen Ullrich
15 mins ago





I don't think that these information provide sufficient information to decide which product to prefer. A product might not be ever hacked since it is not worth (i.e. nobody uses it) but also because it was designed with security and robustness in mind everywhere. A product might be hacked because the companies/developers don't care and/or have no idea what they are doing or it might be hacked because it is heavily used in important places so an attacker puts lots of effort into hacking it. I therefore propose to close the question as too broad or since answers will be primarily opinion based.
– Steffen Ullrich
15 mins ago











1 Answer
1






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2
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It is safer to trust the product that has been tested thoroughly and has had weaknesses fixed. Many times, a successful hack can act as a form of robust test.



But being hacked does not equate to being safer unless the underlying problem has been fixed.



A product that has not been tested, and hence, has not been fixed, provides a false sense of security in that the product has "never had a problem". That's why penetration tests, audits, bug bounties, and public disclosures are useful.



But being hacked, or tested, means nothing without proper fixes to the underlying weaknesses. Adobe Flash has been fixed countless times, but it never become more secure because the underlying problems were never properly addressed.



RSA encryption has never been hacked, but has been tested thoroughly. One should not trust the encryption algorithm that has been hacked in the past.



It's not about the hacks, but about how it was fixed.






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    up vote
    2
    down vote













    It is safer to trust the product that has been tested thoroughly and has had weaknesses fixed. Many times, a successful hack can act as a form of robust test.



    But being hacked does not equate to being safer unless the underlying problem has been fixed.



    A product that has not been tested, and hence, has not been fixed, provides a false sense of security in that the product has "never had a problem". That's why penetration tests, audits, bug bounties, and public disclosures are useful.



    But being hacked, or tested, means nothing without proper fixes to the underlying weaknesses. Adobe Flash has been fixed countless times, but it never become more secure because the underlying problems were never properly addressed.



    RSA encryption has never been hacked, but has been tested thoroughly. One should not trust the encryption algorithm that has been hacked in the past.



    It's not about the hacks, but about how it was fixed.






    share|improve this answer


























      up vote
      2
      down vote













      It is safer to trust the product that has been tested thoroughly and has had weaknesses fixed. Many times, a successful hack can act as a form of robust test.



      But being hacked does not equate to being safer unless the underlying problem has been fixed.



      A product that has not been tested, and hence, has not been fixed, provides a false sense of security in that the product has "never had a problem". That's why penetration tests, audits, bug bounties, and public disclosures are useful.



      But being hacked, or tested, means nothing without proper fixes to the underlying weaknesses. Adobe Flash has been fixed countless times, but it never become more secure because the underlying problems were never properly addressed.



      RSA encryption has never been hacked, but has been tested thoroughly. One should not trust the encryption algorithm that has been hacked in the past.



      It's not about the hacks, but about how it was fixed.






      share|improve this answer
























        up vote
        2
        down vote










        up vote
        2
        down vote









        It is safer to trust the product that has been tested thoroughly and has had weaknesses fixed. Many times, a successful hack can act as a form of robust test.



        But being hacked does not equate to being safer unless the underlying problem has been fixed.



        A product that has not been tested, and hence, has not been fixed, provides a false sense of security in that the product has "never had a problem". That's why penetration tests, audits, bug bounties, and public disclosures are useful.



        But being hacked, or tested, means nothing without proper fixes to the underlying weaknesses. Adobe Flash has been fixed countless times, but it never become more secure because the underlying problems were never properly addressed.



        RSA encryption has never been hacked, but has been tested thoroughly. One should not trust the encryption algorithm that has been hacked in the past.



        It's not about the hacks, but about how it was fixed.






        share|improve this answer














        It is safer to trust the product that has been tested thoroughly and has had weaknesses fixed. Many times, a successful hack can act as a form of robust test.



        But being hacked does not equate to being safer unless the underlying problem has been fixed.



        A product that has not been tested, and hence, has not been fixed, provides a false sense of security in that the product has "never had a problem". That's why penetration tests, audits, bug bounties, and public disclosures are useful.



        But being hacked, or tested, means nothing without proper fixes to the underlying weaknesses. Adobe Flash has been fixed countless times, but it never become more secure because the underlying problems were never properly addressed.



        RSA encryption has never been hacked, but has been tested thoroughly. One should not trust the encryption algorithm that has been hacked in the past.



        It's not about the hacks, but about how it was fixed.







        share|improve this answer














        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer








        edited 1 hour ago

























        answered 1 hour ago









        schroeder♦

        67.1k25141178




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