http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/infolaw/2006/08/21/dod-backs-open-source/ Information, Law, and the Law of Information Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:08:14 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/infolaw/2006/08/21/dod-backs-open-source/comment-page-1/#comment-778 Info/Law » Vista Security in the News Today Tue, 12 Sep 2006 20:19:31 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/infolaw/2006/08/21/dod-backs-open-source/#comment-778 [...] I blogged a short while ago on a Defense Department study that recommended that the government increase its reliance on open-source software, as a way of avoiding vulnerabilities that are associated with what has come to be known as the software monoculture. There are a lot of facets to the monoculture problem, but in the simplest terms, it’s this: the ubiquity of the Windows platform running Microsoft applications magnifies the security risks posed by worms, viruses, and the like. Those risks would be more manageable, the story goes, if there were more diversity with respect to operating systems and key applications among the PCs connected to the internet. Just as Microsoft’s dominance reduces its incentives to improve ease of use, so too does it reduce Microsoft’s incentives to improve the security of its products, to everyone’s detriment. [...] [...] I blogged a short while ago on a Defense Department study that recommended that the government increase its reliance on open-source software, as a way of avoiding vulnerabilities that are associated with what has come to be known as the software monoculture. There are a lot of facets to the monoculture problem, but in the simplest terms, it’s this: the ubiquity of the Windows platform running Microsoft applications magnifies the security risks posed by worms, viruses, and the like. Those risks would be more manageable, the story goes, if there were more diversity with respect to operating systems and key applications among the PCs connected to the internet. Just as Microsoft’s dominance reduces its incentives to improve ease of use, so too does it reduce Microsoft’s incentives to improve the security of its products, to everyone’s detriment. [...]

]]>