Reverse Engineering of Code

Abstract

The ability to reverse engineer a product has been important for as long as technology has existed. A vital activity in most branches of industrial design and production has been to acquire samples of the products sold by competing companies and pick them apart. Understanding the engineering done by your competing opponents can shed insight into the strengths and weaknesses of their products, reveal the engineering ideas behind their products' features, and fertilize and further improve the innovation that goes on in one's own company.