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The difference is one of targeting. It's like saying "People would never break into a bank, when they could break into someone's house and steal their stuff"

The difference is one of targeting. It's like saying "People would never break into a bank, when they could break into someone's house and steal their stuff" It may be easier to break into someone's home-brew system, but generally it would be unlikely to happen unless you were being otherwise targetted. Whereas google has a lot of users data, which could make it a more attractive target.

nine_k 10y ago
Very much so! If you're a "person of interest", you'll be attacked either way. If you're just a regular person, like me, you won't likely be targeted. But my chances of getting a collateral damage are much higher in a centralized system: when it's broken into, my data have a chance of being siphoned off along with data of someone less ordinary, who was the target of the attack.
- infogulch 10y ago
  It's wider than this. A "person of interest" will be attacked either way. A "normal boring person" won't be targeted directly, but may be swept up in an attack on a "person of interest". But there's a third case: "normal boring people" become interesting just by being together in a big group, even if no particular "person of interest" is among them.
tbrownaw 10y ago
It may be easier to break into someone's home-brew system, but generally it would be unlikely to happen unless you were being otherwise targetted. Just how "home-brew" are we talking here? If there's any web-facing code that you didn't write yourself, whether commercial or open-source or whatever, that's a target for attackers that just scan everything looking for known vulnerable services. If it is entirely custom, I'm fairly sure there are a few classes of common security errors that can be reasonably well tested for without direct human involvement. Which brings back the threat of attackers just scanning for all available targets.

nine_k 10y ago

Very much so! If you're a "person of interest", you'll be attacked either way. If you're just a regular person, like me, you won't likely be targeted. But my chances of getting a collateral damage are much higher in a centralized system: when it's broken into, my data have a chance of being siphoned off along with data of someone less ordinary, who was the target of the attack.

infogulch 10y ago
It's wider than this. A "person of interest" will be attacked either way. A "normal boring person" won't be targeted directly, but may be swept up in an attack on a "person of interest". But there's a third case: "normal boring people" become interesting just by being together in a big group, even if no particular "person of interest" is among them.

tbrownaw 10y ago

It may be easier to break into someone's home-brew system, but generally it would be unlikely to happen unless you were being otherwise targetted. Just how "home-brew" are we talking here? If there's any web-facing code that you didn't write yourself, whether commercial or open-source or whatever, that's a target for attackers that just scan everything looking for known vulnerable services. If it is entirely custom, I'm fairly sure there are a few classes of common security errors that can be reasonably well tested for without direct human involvement. Which brings back the threat of attackers just scanning for all available targets.