Reverse Engineering.

Reverse engineering is as old as technology itself. Anyone who unscrews a device to see how it is built is already doing it. In software it means observing which data a program sends and receives, reading file formats, analysing a web app's network requests in the browser or translating compiled code back into a readable form. The result is a description of what the system does, without access to the source code or the developers.

For SMEs the most common scenario is unspectacular: an old industry application is to be replaced, but the vendor no longer exists and nobody knows exactly how the data is stored. Or a device, a till system or a machine is to be connected to a new system and there is no documented API. Reverse engineering then clarifies which data sits where and how to migrate it cleanly. This is often the basis for moving to custom software or escaping vendor lock-in.

AI agents are changing the craft. They can read large amounts of code, logs or network traffic, recognise patterns and produce documentation or even a reimplementation of an interface. Tools are appearing on GitHub with which coding agents analyse web apps and programs systematically. This speeds up the work considerably but requires oversight: agents can misinterpret relationships, and what they infer must be checked against the real system.

Legally, reverse engineering in Switzerland is neither banned across the board nor allowed without limits. Article 21 of the Swiss Copyright Act (URG) allows lawful users of a program to decode the code in order to obtain information about interfaces to independently created programs, i.e. for interoperability. The information obtained may only be used for that purpose. Licence agreements, the protection of technical measures (Art. 39a URG) and the protection of trade secrets also apply. Text: fedlex.admin.ch, SR 231.1. This overview is not legal advice; in individual cases a specialist should assess the situation.