good article on military open source I helped out with:
Cultural Changes Key to Reducing Barriers to Open Source Software
Future networks and products could benefit from cost savings and efficiencies. Misconceptions about open source software have made many U.S. Defense Department sectors reluctant to employ this technology. Although a 2003 department policy allows its use, many still believe that open source software poses an increased security risk to networks and that it is not supported as well as commercial products.
An example of such software is the U.S. Joint Forces Command’s (JFCOM’s) J-9 Joint Futures Laboratory redact tool. JFCOM developed a free open source software redaction tool to remove changes from standard office documents. “Secure Save” uses OpenOffice.org software to redact non-viewable text, images, metadata and other undesired elements of standard office documents. This tool could be applied to remove information from documents to declassify them and transfer them between networks of different classifications. Today when operators declassify information, they delete it from a document, but the changes are retrievable and could result in the inadvertent disclosure of classified/sensitive information.
This was the case in 2005 when the text from a redacted classified document from Multi-National Force–Iraq (MNF-I) was unintentionally exposed to the public. MNF-I issued a report in Adobe Portable Document Format that described the investigation into the shooting of an Italian journalist. While the actual report posted on the Internet appeared to be unclassified, an Italian citizen was able to recover the deleted classified text by cutting and pasting the document into Microsoft Notepad.
The cost of cleaning up a “network spill” that introduces classified material on an unclassified network is running about $11,000 per incident on the Navy/Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI), so the free Secure Save tool could produce monetary savings for the Navy. Additionally, it would cover more file formats than the costly commercial redaction product currently available on the NMCI. The Navy is missing the opportunity to use this solution because a misunderstanding of the risks of open source software and Defense Department (DOD) apprehension are at the forefront.
Some of the confusion stems from a lack of understanding regarding the differences between open standards, open source, freeware and closed-source software. Open standards are generally described as a specification for a procedure, protocol or technology developed by a recognized standards body, such as the World Wide Web Consortium, that is available for anyone to implement. The standard must be patent-free or under reasonable and nondiscriminatory patent license to be considered open.
Freeware is software that is distributed completely free of charge and may be open or closed source. Adobe Reader is a good example of freeware. Open source software is available for anyone to view, modify, compile and use. It is not necessarily free or unsupported. Red Hat Linux is a good example, as is MySQL. AB’s MySQL Database, though open source, does not allow people outside the company to contribute software to the product. It is essentially no different from Microsoft SQL, except everyone can see the source code. Open source also can mean a different vendor support model whereby instead of paying for a license and support, customers obtain support from any vendor.
More here: http://www.afcea.org/signal/articles/templates/SIGNAL_Article_Template.asp?articleid=1439&zoneid=60
Recent Comments