Re: Open source vs. proprietary software

[Muhammad Faisal Rauf Danka <mfrd () attitudex com>]

Dear Paul,

> From an Information Systems & Security Auditor’s perspective I’d like to state that

Security and Controls Implementation on Open Source is far superior in comparison to its proprietary closed source 
counterparts.

Although the intricacies of Security and Implementation of Controls on either technology are at par, however 
pragmatically speaking, Implementation of Controls against profiled Risks in a computing environment such as Open 
Source i.e. (white box-approach) is relatively trivial due to easy integration and availability of code review.

The massive pool of independent audits by the open source community has proven open source to hold lesser residual 
risk, as vulnerabilities are discovered and patched in a timely manner. 

As regards “Co-Existent Issues” (of both technologies in humdrum) is concerned, the implementation is widely practiced, 
specially considering a DMZ environment.
Where essentially the objective is to distribute the risk associated with publicly connected networks by applying the 
approach of layered defence.

As far as the Implementation of controls vis-à-vis Firewalls and Intrusion Detection Systems (to accommodate the 
requirement of, preventive and detective controls respectively against profiled and identified risks involved in 
information processing facilities) are mere gadgets that have no influence and / or issues of incompatibility with each 
other and / or servers (be they mail/file/print/application/intranet/extranet/web).

The crux of the matter is that “FSF & GNU stand for freedom and security” and it’s not just a cliché

For further assistance please feel free to drop me a line.


Regards
--------
Muhammad Faisal Rauf Danka

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