Computer/System Security + Sencond Law of thermo

[ryanluke86]

Hello,
I am a Security Engineer and deal with system security. I have an interest in Physics and wondered if the second law of thermodynamics applied to system security.

My thought is... if you secure a [computer] system as much as possible (this can never be 100%) and leave it. Over time the entropy will increase and render that system vulnerable to attack.

I mainly deal with computer and web application security. So my thoughts are in that context. What I'm trying to say here is that time will eventually render a security system useless no matter how secure it was originally.

Any thoughts on this?

 

[James Leighe]

The computer is not a 'closed system' (since it's powered by a wall socket etc.) and therefore is not subject to that law.

One (non physics) reason it's more likely to get cracked if you set it for a while is because of new exploits and better / larger scale (and automated especially) use of older ones.