Open-Source Fight Flares At Pentagon Microsoft Lobbies Hard Against Free Software <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60050-2002May22.html>

By Jonathan Krim Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, May 23, 2002; Page E01

Microsoft Corp. is aggressively lobbying the Pentagon to squelch its growing use of freely distributed computer software and switch to proprietary systems such as those sold by the software giant, according to officials familiar with the campaign.

In what one military source called a "barrage" of contacts with officials at the Defense Information Systems Agency and the office of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld over the past few months, the company said "open source" software threatens security and its intellectual property.

But the effort may have backfired. A May 10 report prepared for the Defense Department concluded that open source often results in more secure, less expensive applications and that, if anything, its use should be expanded.

"Banning open source would have immediate, broad, and strongly negative impacts on the ability of many sensitive and security-focused DOD groups to protect themselves against cyberattacks," said the report, by Mitre Corp.

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Microsoft also said open-source software is inherently less secure because the code is available for the world to examine for flaws, making it possible for hackers or criminals to exploit them. Proprietary software, the company argued, is more secure because of its closed nature.

A master of the security half-truth chimes in...

"I've never seen a systematic study that showed open source to be more secure," said Dorothy Denning, a professor of computer science at Georgetown University who specializes in information warfare.

John Stenbit, an assistant secretary of defense and the Defense Department's chief information officer, said Microsoft has said using free software with commercial software might violate the intellectual-property rights of companies such as Microsoft. Stenbit said the issue is legally "murky."

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Stenbit said the debate is academic and that what matters is how secure a given piece of software is. To that end, the Defense Department is now prohibited from purchasing any software that has not undergone security testing by the NSA. Stenbit said he is unaware of any open-source software that has been tested.

This should present no problem for open source software. No purchase takes place since the software is "free" by definition. steve