this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2023
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Because I have no knowledge or understanding of programing, can someone please eli5 how an open source program can remain encrypted and secure? Is it just a matter of good faith that jerks won't mess with it or does the encryption programming itself have protections?
From my understanding, open source encryption is actually better for privacy than closed source, since then you can have external auditors. Basically, encryption is doing a TON of math involving prime numbers, so even if you know the algorithms used, you still won't be able to figure out what the secret (or password) is without using inordinate amounts of computing power.
For more reading, check out Kerkchoff's Principle
which is one of the big things behind quantum computing. we will (will, not might) get to a point where QCs can do the math to crack RSA/other large prime-based encryption standards.
That's why you add a post-quantum (AKA symmetric) password too.
But be careful there have been a few “quantum safe” encryption algorithms proven to not break quantum safe.
Thank you. This is helpful!