Google: More on Reverse Engineering
March 13, 2011
In Harrod’s Creek, we don’t have much technology. The notion of reverse engineering is, therefore, not one talked about at the River Creek Inn. We have been thinking about Google’s interest in reverse engineering and are not sure how that discipline fits into some of Google’s initiatives. Google’s patent applications reveal a remarkable fertile range of innovations.
We revisited some of the write ups about Google’s purchase of Zynamics. We liked Search Engine Journal’s ”Google Buys German Reverse Engineering Company.” Here’s a key passage:
“Zynamics is a company specializing in…understanding and manipulating software that doesn’t have available source code. While this can technically mean closed-source software with hidden code, it far more commonly means malware. This is best shown in the Zynamics lineup of products, which includes BinDiff (dissects executable files), PDF Dissector (looks through PDF files for malicious software), BinNavi (looks through binary code), and BinCrowd (a database for reverse engineering data).”
We thought about science fiction. If any of our readers have watched Star Trek, Star Gate, or Dr. Who, they’re familiar with the concept of reverse engineering. Generally, it comes up on these shows when a piece of advance technology ends up in the past. The advanced technology is then reversed engineered and the bad guy uses it to his advantage. The heroes show up, save the day, and then continue with their adventures.
So does this make Google the good or the bad guy? Maybe they’ve assimilated Zynamics to help fight malware and install their research in the Chrome Browser and OS. Or have they simply run out of ideas and need reverse innovation? I know the “doing no evil” phrase is not used too much, and at lunch, my colleagues and I were not able to speculate with confidence. We did agree that tools are tools. Exciting, right?
Whitney Grace, March 12, 2011
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