Is Open Source More or Less Secure?

✍ Scribed by Fred Cohen

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2002
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 172 KB
• Volume: 2002
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1353-4858
• DOI: 10.1016/s1353-4858(02)07011-3

✦ Synopsis

Now that you know the conclusion of this month's article -that open source is not, more or less, you might want to know that closed source software is also not, more or less, secure,.Most software today is really far less secure than those of us who want effective protection would have it. That goes for open and closed source. But the question of which we should use and under what circumstances remains an issue that we should address for our organizations and ourselves.

By way of full disclosure, I should note that I both buy and sell closed, slightly open (open to customers only), and open source software. So I obviously think that each is a viable approach depending on the details of the situation. The question then remains of how the balance of factors influences decisions in this regard.