Firewalls and BIOS's and Coreboot (2020)

I’m into computer security a little bit and always striving to learn more. I’m also a firm believer in Open Source software. In Proprietary software you don’t know really know what’s going on. Case in point: Alexa, Siri, Hey Google. They say it isn’t spying on you but you know that it is. With Open Source software you can view the code and see if any hanky panky is going on. There are a lot of Open Source Operating Systems such a Linux. But here’s the catch. You run your Open Source OS which gets launched by a firmware (BIOS – Built In Operating System) which is PROPRIETARY!. Also it can prevent you from installing a 3rd party device such as a battery, or charging brick. Major exploits such as HeartBleed (remember that scare a few years ago) live and breathe in the firmware. You can slick the OS, change the hard drive all you want but you are still compromised AND YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW IT. Let’s lay out a scenario. I had a hardware firewall from a company called Netgate and it runs s ... Read full article.