Security of Open vs. Closed Source Software

Posted by michael on Friday June 21, 2002 @01:51AM from the flame-retardant-suit dept.

morhoj writes "Cambridge University researcher Ross Anderson just released a paper concluding that open source and closed source software are equally secure. Can't find a copy of the paper online yet, but I thought this would make for an interesting morning conversation. You may not agree with him, but anyone who's on the BugTraq List can tell you that open source software isn't as bug free as we would all like to think." I found Anderson's paper, so read it for yourself. There are some other interesting papers being presented at the conference as well.

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Well, actually ... by Tim+Ward · 2002-06-21 07:12 · Score: 1, Troll

... Microsoft do list their bugs online (ever heard of the Knowledge Base)?

Few other closed source suppliers come remotely close to this - some try, a bit, but they just don't put in the investment.

OK, the KB doesn't answer everthing, and you have to Google usenet sometimes, ie at the end of the day you can be reduced to using the only resource that is available for tracking open source bugs.