This is somewhat off-topic, but I thought some of you on this listserver might be interested in an article that is being emailed around various gov't agencies this morning. I just received this from a friend who works for Lockheed-Martin Ft. Worth, TX division, who received it from someone else with DOD. This tidbit is supposedly from an article in the 5/23 Washington Post.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------ OPEN SOURCE FIGHT FLARES AT PENTAGON: 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. A Microsoft Corp. spokesman acknowledged discussions between the company and the Pentagon but denied urging a ban on open-source software. He also said Microsoft did not focus on potential security flaws. John Stenbit, an assistant secretary of defense and the Defense Department's chief information officer, said that Microsoft has said using free software with commercial software might violate companies' intellectual-property rights. Stenbit said the issue is legally "murky." The company also complained that the Pentagon is funding research on making free software more secure, which in effect subsidizes Microsoft's open-source competitors, Stenbit said. Software is designated open source when its underlying computer code is available for anyone to license, enhance or customize, often at no cost. The theory is that by putting source code in the public domain, programmers worldwide can improve software by sharing one another's work. Vendors of the proprietary systems, such as Microsoft and Oracle Corp., keep their source codes secret, control changes to programs and collect all licensing fees for their use. Government agencies use a patchwork of systems and software, and proprietary software is still the most widely used. But open source has become more popular with businesses and government. The Mitre report said open-source software "plays a more critical role in the DoD than has been generally recognized." The report said banning open-source software would drive up costs, though it offered no specifics. Stenbit said that 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. (Washington Post - 5/23) =========================================================================== To unsubscribe: mailto [EMAIL PROTECTED] with body: "signoff JSP-INTEREST". For digest: mailto [EMAIL PROTECTED] with body: "set JSP-INTEREST DIGEST". Some relevant FAQs on JSP/Servlets can be found at: http://archives.java.sun.com/jsp-interest.html http://java.sun.com/products/jsp/faq.html http://www.esperanto.org.nz/jsp/jspfaq.jsp http://www.jguru.com/faq/index.jsp http://www.jspinsider.com
