The growing complexity of computer software has direct implications for our global safety and security, particularly as the physical objects upon which we depend ― things like cars, airplanes, bridges, tunnels, and implantable medical devices ― transform themselves into computer code.
(A)
As all this code grows in size and complexity, so too do the number of errors and software bugs. According to a study by Carnegie Mellon University, commercial software typically has twenty to thirty bugs for every thousand lines of code ― 50 million lines of code means 1 million to 1.5 million potential errors to be exploited.
(B)
This is the basis for all malware attacks that take advantage of these computer bugs to get the code to do something it was not originally intended to do. As computer code grows more elaborate, software bugs flourish and security suffers, with increasing consequences for society at large.
(C)
Physical things are increasingly becoming information technologies. Cars are “computers we ride in,” and airplanes are nothing more than “flying Solaris boxes attached to bucketfuls of industrial control systems.”
* exploit: 활용하다
