Originally Posted by
rickair7777
Umm, I have multiple degrees + professional experience in exactly those fields. I didn't take out a loan for flight training
Software can be modified to accomplish absolutely anything which the hardware is physically capable of doing. You need access and skill. In some cases the required threshold of skill resides in very limited numbers of people but well-funded cyber warfare outfits can usually find a way if they want to badly enough.
What's your degree(s) in? I'm surprised that you'd be so fatalistic. Even Apple had great faith in their codebase (yes, appears it was hacked) but obviously the person had the phone in physical possession and the successful hack seems to have come from outside the agency.
With solid programming a system could be made nearly entirely secure, and for a system that is essentially closed and obscure modification could be made nearly impossible. I disagree with your repeated blanket statement:
"Software can be modified to accomplish absolutely anything which the hardware is physically capable of doing."
With simple code verification your statement is generally is not true; and I know of no computer engineer or person in the field that would claim this. Look how long it took to hack a consumer console, say Xbox One, and there are literally millions of them around, and thousands of people trying simultaneously. It was literally years before it was opened.