Comment: Open source can also be highly secure-InfoSecurity Magazine

The British Government recently that purpose of open-source software is good for driving cost savings, particularly in the light of the austerity measures. Open-source products, but often must be enriched with ' secret sauce ' (i.e., proprietary software components) in order to make them fit for purpose and to the strict CESG approval processes.

Use of open-source software for the basis of a technology stack is obviously a cost-effective approach to take because the software is free and there are some licensing issues. Nevertheless, the caveat has always been the security problems. The prevailing view within the IT industry has been that proprietary need safer and therefore better-this is not always the case.

In combination with layers of specialized software, which is the value add of the vendor, open-source systems can provide very robust applications that are not only profitable, but very suitable. Because of their open character, these systems are highly portable, scalable and interoperable. These attributes further investment, making these systems a very real option for industry and commercial enterprises, as well as to protect the Government.

It has been reported recently that open source "effectively banned" of Government IT because the approval of CESG, the information assurance arm of SOCIETE GENERALE. Pure open-source products would indeed struggling to satisfy CESG approval; However, take a blended approach, technology products can achieve CESG approval. Becrypt is this evidence.

If the Government drive cost-cutting measures in the coming years, more and more of the IT vendor community will move to providing solutions based on open-source technology, simply because the forces of the market will require.

However, it will never be as straightforward as organizations just download open-source products and staff open season to choose what they want. While open source on the server, with Apache Web Server is one of the most popular and included in many other branded servers (such as IBM Websphere) has embraced, there are still problems with the adoption on the desktop.

Open-source products in General should be toughened to make them fit for purpose, particularly in the vicinity of a Government, and at this time, there is confusion about who is the owner of that risk. ICT good practices are to be followed, and open-source products need to be selected by the same amount of due diligence as when a new IT product. Good engineering practices are still necessary when suppliers producing new products based on open source, and mixing of the open source with its own ' secret sauce ' will still be highly skilled and experienced developers require.

The IT industry is cyclical, like any other. IBM built in 1981 the first business PCs, but expected to be forever mainframes and Microsoft sales, supported the hobbyists and home users. Now, thirty years later, we are once again ready for change as people away from the desktop to the cloud. In computer terms, this is the old mainframe model jazzed up for modern times.

As organisations – including the Government – to the model of cloud, and people to get used to new ways of working, we'll start to see a change to the desktop. People will no longer insist on Microsoft Office, scared to try other products in the event their Word documents will not work. Will people are glad to offer an open-source word processing application to use, and compatibility with other products will be the norm, much as in the early days of the PC when there are other products, such as Lotus 123 and WordPerfect. Currently, safety is often given as an excuse not to use open source, but this fear evaporated with blended technology that is fully approved.

While it clearly will take many years before big companies their ERP systems on open-source turns his-based systems, the trend towards cheaper software is definitely here-we see this in the huge spread of extremely cheap apps and games available for the iPhone, iPad, and Android devices. It will start with the Government and SMEs looking for more cost-effective ways of working, with the more agile vendors stepping in to plug this hole in the market. The next phase will departments of large businesses looking for ways to distinguish themselves for individual projects or products/services.

Eventually we will see a move away from expensive license-based own ICT systems, on a much more open, interoperable and cost-effective way of working.

Marc Hocking is chief technology officer at Becrypt. Prior to joining Becrypt, Hocking was with the UK Government Cabinet Office where he worked closely with large divisions solutions worked in support of the delivery of a number of cross-government to develop projects. He spent 10 years in a number of different roles within the international financial institutions, to work on systems that PKI, authentication, authorization, and infrastructure for the privilege.

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