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Defense Dept. Memo Explains Open Source Policy
TonyStanco writes "Big news. DoD issued a policy statement leveling the playing field for Open Source. We have the memo on the Center of Open Source & Government site." The requirements listed in this memo make me think of a company policy along the lines of "You can bring your baby or toddler to work, so long as it can talk, feed itself and stick effortlessly to the ceiling like a spider." See this PDF for more information about National Security Telecommunications and Information Systems Security Policy (NSTISSP) number 11.
"You can bring your baby or toddler to work, so long as it can talk, feed itself and stick effortlessly to the ceiling like a spider.
Well, hey. At least its a start. Previously, many DOD organizations and departments had an absolute policy on software/platform. In many places, especially sensitive installations, the policy was Solaris. In the last few years there has been an inexorable move toward Windows, despite the obvious problems. Other defense contractors have been moving in the same direction presumably to control costs by moving everything to one platform. However, most people are finding that this is not the best solution and they are allowing the installation/use/purchase of other systems including open source, Linux and OS X.
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Best first bet would be it will slip in from DARPA. They've probably *already* been using it in places they're technically supposed to be using a commercial UNIX.
--Dave
The Navy/Marine corp are launching a large scale contract (NMCI) that restricts all Navy IT to MS and MS solutions.
This contract locks down the network to only NMCI managed systems (MS only). If there are existing systems that cannot run under windows than you have to apply for a "legacy system" exception and pay extra for no service.
This one size fits all approach is short sighted and foolish. The upper echelon has yet to catch on that the network is the backbone or the infrastructure that enables an ever increasing plethora of monitoring systems, data acquisition and control systems, collabration and communication mechanisms, etc.
As more and more devices become Web enabled the Navy has effectively locked itself out in the cold and crawled in bed with built in obsolesce - not to mentioned left itself vulnerable to an attack or virus that would spead like wild fire in a homogeneous network.
Use of Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) in the U.S. Department of Defense -- This report documents the results of a short email-mediated study by The MITRE Corporation on the use of free and open-source software (FOSS) in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).
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I would NOT be offended if goverment agencies decided to use undocumented closed source protocals
I wouldn't be offended- I'd be scared. The rule of thumb is that "Security through obscurity is no security at all", but realistically, it's good enough for some situations where there aren't large numbers of dedicated, well-fianced enemy spies. That is, anyplace other than National Security can get away with it for a while.
It is critical that, if a software developer who knows the code defects, we can simply change everyone's password and not junk the entire system until the program can be re-written from scratch. But that's what relying on closed-source for security would require.
Hell if they want to write their propriority software in ADA, more power too them.
The US government doesn't write proprietary software. Or anything else proprietary for that matter- all their intellectual works are public domain. Some of them are protected under security classification, like the way Air Force bases belong to the public, but they're not allowed inside without permission.
(And, a Top-Secret classification will expire long before copyrights do...)
openBSD is of course reputed to be the most secure open source operating system.
I think that it seems a little weird that the US military is on the one hand acting very anti opensouce, while on the other- it is actively funding its development.
Additionally, I have seen one or two "discovery channel" type documentaries in recent months that have filmed computer terminals inside US military installations. There was no doubt that the personnel were running Unix, although the exact flavour remained unclear- but could it be openBSD...?