Why are hackers always ahead of software developers?

Out of context: Reply #22

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  • SteveJobs0

    don't kid yourself. many hackers know much more than the programmers behind the target software. in many cases, software development is just a bunch of high-level api calls, encapsulated, modularized, and brought harmoniously together to perform a specific set of tasks, through an interface that is intuitive to the user.

    hacking software requires a much more intimate knowledge of computers: the target os, machine language, assembly and being able to see patterns and find structures in heaps of hexadecimal values when looking at software in a disassembler. knowing how and where to set jump routines, twiddle bits, etc, requires all that knowledge and more - and of course in some cases, a lot of time.

    however, most companies don't put much effort into protecting their software. and as another post mentioned, this is often intentional and a way of getting users familiar with their software, yet being able to keep larger corporations in check. the others simply didn't put enough effort into it, or took a conventional way to protect their software, if any at all, and within hours of a software release, cracks are available.

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