:PC Week: Experts debate merits of open source for security
PC Week: Experts debate merits of open source for security Mar 24, 2000, 23 :49 UTC (9 Talkback[s]) (6106 reads) (Other stories by Scott Berinato)
"The security debate pits two theories against
one another -- "many eyes" vs. "security by
obscurity." Open-source projects such as Linux
follow the many eyes principle, which states that
the more developers working on code and the
fewer secrets, the harder it is to compromise the
software because more people will detect issues
and fix them."
"I tend to lean toward the open-source model for
a couple of reasons," said Kelly Fulks, systems
administrator at Huntsville Hospital, in Huntsville,
Ala. "You have more people looking at the code,
and if something goes wrong, we totally control
the fix. It's lower cost, and it's always better to
invest in people talent instead of paying for
software." The hospital uses Sendmail...."
"Proprietary-source advocates argue for hiding
the code as a deterrent to breaking the code,
just as burglars avoid houses with locked doors.
That's the security by obscurity theory. If open
source empowers software builders, it equally
empowers attackers. With freely available
blueprints, hackers can get clever at building
malicious code to attack systems."
