Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by xyproto 969 days ago
You can substanciate a claim that a cardboard box is insecure without proving it.

And you can substanciate a claim that an an online service is secure without proving it.

1 comments

Great, so your argument is based on misinterpreting my single usage of the word “prove” to mean the mathematical definition rather than the colloquial definition meaning substantiated as is obvious to even the most casual observer based on how my statements talk about evidence, not logical inference rules.

I mean, do you seriously think that if person A says: “My vault is secure for 15 minutes against a human with a crowbar.” And person B says “Prove it.” That person A would ever respond with: “I can not because a vault is not a mathematical object and therefore proof is impossible, but I can substantiate it.” That would be ridiculous beyond belief. That is what you are doing.

I think the distinction matters not only in mathematics and logic but in security too. Companies with "proven security" are often proven wrong.