Are there any methods to hack a user's computer via the SAFE Network

Are there any methods to hack a user’s computer via the SAFE Network?

Funny, I’m about to raise a question along these lines.

In short, the network doesn’t really provide any credible ways to hack a computer, it will come down to what the user allows to run on the computer. So if you download from a disreputable source, your computer could be hacked - i.e. end up with malware running on it.

Once malware is running on your computer, it can do what it likes - stealing information, transmitting it over the conventional internet. I’m not sure how feasible it would be for malware to make use of SAFE itself - to upload stolen information for example, but that’s a question worth asking!

SAFE does though make it much harder for hackers to get malware onto your computer. For example, they can’t modify files that are stored on the network by other publishers. They can’t modify the stored file - unless they have access to the file (e.g. they stored it, or they obtain stolen login credentials). They can’t modify the file as it is downloaded - man in the middle type attacks, because the data, source, destination are all encrypted.

A concern I have is the vulnerability of user account information.

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So do you think various forms of social engineering like phishing is possible on the Maidsafe network?

By definition, no network can protect against social engineering. Access control methods (e.g biometrics) could though, or make it very hard.

Phishing is a particular kind of social engineering, and one that the current network won’t save you from AFAIK, but it may - depends on the messaging client. But it would be hard to do without impacting functionally. At least until there’s a SAFE OS and/or you boot directly off the network, thus bypassing most malware on the device you’re using.

It’s hard to give definitive answers, but I think SAFE will make things much better quite quickly, and could improve computer security dramatically in the long run.

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