Reverse Engineering Used for Good and Bad

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Reverse engineering is a technique that breaks down an object and lets others recreate it. Today many people associate reverse engineering with espionage whether in the government or corporate. In the past people such as farmers would copy tools that seem to be giving other farmers an advantage. Nations or states also use this technique to arm their armies with the best weapons or defenses to defeat approaching forces . Today the technique has been used in many other fields of work that is available for us today, such as archeology, manufacturing, and computer analysis. Archeology can use reverse engineering when a machine is found but not complete or broken. Archeologist can break down modern equivalent machines and intrepid what is missing from the rest of the one that was found. Manufacturing fields have also employed the use of reveres engineering to help create computer design models of merchandise that are being made. This would create very accurate and extremely detailed plans that manufacturers would not get from pictures or drawings. Computer analysis fields are another field that could benefit from reveres engineering. These fields could use programs to break down computer viruses to better understand how to create firewalls to stop them.
Some of the first uses of reverse engineering started out on the battle field with competing armies trying to get the best weapons to each other. Many western nations largest ambition was to be able to create gunpowder without having to import it all the way from China. In this way, they would gain an advantage as the supply of gunpowder would come from inside the nation and the supply would not run out. (Chase) Reverse engineering however was not only applicable to war in the past, man...

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...down programs like computer viruses to better understand them and protect or deploy them. Another way that reverse engineering software has been employed is to recover programs where parts of the program have been lost. Before the Y2K crisis reverse engineering of software was not widely used. However after the Y2K scare, recovery of programs due to the turn of the century became a big part of the modern world. (Moore) The better understanding of software program has led to more efficient software programs and firewalls against malware and viruses.
Archeology, manufacturing, and computer analysis are only three fields out of many fields today that employ the use of reverse engineering. The past uses of reverse engineering such as reinventing weapons or tools are still in use today however, the techniques have evolved to help improve on the tools that are used today.

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