Having conducted research in computer security since 1989, I have organically learned what research truly is and what I expect from it. To start with, perhaps it’s easier to say what is not considered research. These days, when people talk about research, they’re simply referring to Googling, or better yet, ChatGPT output. Neither is research. In fact, those who rely on these methods are almost certainly just copying rather than truly learning, let alone performing research.
I’ve mentioned this many times: Google, Bing, it does not matter which search engine you pick. Best-case scenario, they contain only about 30% of the available content. And the more the internet relies on large language models, the more that percentage becomes just a different copy of the original. Yes, the originality of content is being significantly reduced each day we rely on Copilot, Gemini, ChatGPT, and so on. These agents compile great content at first glance, yet they’re just improvising on the original. Don’t confuse this with a machine learning model where you actually teach the machine how to draw conclusions based on data, your logic, deep learning architecture, and parameters.
So again, search engines are not for research. They never have been. The results you get from these platforms are just snapshots of what’s already out there. They are gathering and reorganizing material that is already available.
Research starts when you first learn about a new phenomenon purely as a result of your own analysis, understanding, or trials. Research begins to take shape when you start concluding something from these outcomes, and you begin to create a thesis, an idea, or even just a guess. You develop different scenarios based on the context of your research and learn more. I repeat this basic term: learning. To me, it means arriving at facts and theories through your own investigation, using books, experiments, and yes, even search engines as mere starting points.
There is no precise metric to quantify this, but in terms of your knowledge base, you may get 10 to 15 percent of what you need from search engines, a little more from specific forums, and a bit more from books, journals, and magazines. But the main thing takes shape when you use your brain power to go through the knowledge and trials. I would say at least 50% happens in this phase. This is when you gain adequate knowledge of a topic, you understand its current state, the challenges, and you have a purpose, an issue to solve. Then you think, and you think more, and you try your theories and intensely observe the outcomes.
Now, why is research so important for one’s understanding of computer security? The answer is simple: whether you want to be a hacker or a security practitioner, it is only through research that you find ways to break into a computer system, or protect it from any break-in. So next time you ask yourself why we’re always behind hackers and trying to catch up, it’s simply because we’re doing less and less research.