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drawkbox t1_j9xtvb4 wrote

I am more zero trust but if you are going to trust, trust fewer third parties. Even if trustable. Third parties get sold. Third parties need to make money from that not other ways only (Apple/Google for instance don't need you using messaging to survive).

If you are already on a browser, a password store/generator is safer without a third party involved. The OS, browser and company already have you, why involve a third party?

Same with messaging... Trusting WhatsApp/Signal/Telegram is not only another level third party, it is your most private content... why trust a funded/private equity/questionable source system if you don't have to.

Signal does appear to be the best of them, however being open is not safer always.

The new trick is dependency/build attacks, so good sometimes the main company doesn't even know it is happening (see SolarWinds that was hacked via TeamCity CI, the bad bits were being put into the dependencies at build, code was fully independently verified). The problem is blanket trust. It is what led to the OpenSSL Heartbleed hole, the Log4j/Log4Shell hole and pretty much any bit hole in the last year was part of open source.

When a company gets their source code stolen (LastPass for instance) the point is to find dependencies they can manipulate, not even the code itself. Almost all closed code uses dependencies that are open or known, and have known holes, the key there is utilizing that when you know the code flow. Open source actually makes that part easier, no need to steal source code.

I am a big OSS fan, but I hate how devs are the weak link today. Devs today are so willing to trust a third party because they heard about it or it saves a day. Those are the MOST targeted dependencies...

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