Computing platforms are currently undergoing rapid change. The end of single-core scaling throws a monkey wrench into ~20 years of "mostly unchanging" hardware; systems with multiple heterogenous computing platforms and shared memory seem like the future.

This is coupled with an increased tendency to build "closed" systems: Systems that are - either by accident or design - hard to introspect and hard to debug. These developments have multiple side-effects on practicing reverse engineers: On the one hand, tooling has to adapt (as reverse engineering tools need to mirror development tools); in some other ways, the community is already adapting (more specialization etc.).

This talk will outline the changes the reverse engineering community is facing, describe some of the observable effects, and concludes with a discussion how the "closed" systems fundamentally put well-meaning defenders at a disadvantage, while providing little deterrent effect for serious and well-financed attackers.

Slides are available here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/.../edit#slide=id.g3807d77cc5_0_82 or click on the link in the sidebar for a local copy.