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On the security of open source software
Author(s) -
Payne Christian
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
information systems journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.635
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1365-2575
pISSN - 1350-1917
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2575.2002.00118.x
Subject(s) - popularity , computer science , computer security , the internet , open source , software security assurance , variety (cybernetics) , software , relation (database) , open source software , world wide web , internet privacy , information security , security service , database , political science , artificial intelligence , law , programming language
With the rising popularity of so‐called ‘open source’ software there has been increasing interest in both its various benefits and disadvantages. In particular, despite its prominent use in providing many aspects of the Internet's basic infrastructure, many still question the suitability of such software for the commerce‐oriented Internet of the future. This paper evaluates the suitability of open source software with respect to one of the key attributes that tomorrow's Internet will require, namely security. It seeks to present a variety of arguments that have been made, both for and against open source security and analyses in relation to empirical evidence of system security from a previous study. The results represent preliminary quantitative evidence concerning the security issues surrounding the use and development of open source software, in particular relative to traditional proprietary software.