RE: CRIME Study: Open, closed source equally secure

From: Zot O'Connor (zot@private)
Date: Sun Jun 23 2002 - 03:11:01 PDT

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    On Thu, 2002-06-20 at 21:57, Andrew Plato wrote:
    
    > I'd be interested in seeing a  study like that. I wonder what the mean time between discovery of a problem and a widely acceptable fix being available is for open-source vs. closed source? My intuition tells me that close-source may take longer to acknowledge and come up with a fix, but it can spread that repair out quicker because it has a more organized notification channel. Where as open-source might repair the problem faster, but spreading it out to users would be slower because there is a lack of centralized coordination. I would speculate then, that the same conclusion would result...open and closed source would have about the same real-world response time. 
    > 
    > I could cite an example...when IIS has a bug we hear about it all over the news which would prompt people to get the update. But when a new version of Snort comes out that repairs some bug, people don't know about it until they happen to stop by the Snort site and notice that there has been a version update. 
    > 
    
    Andrew, you need to wrap lines.
    
    IIS is a bad example, in oh so many ways.
    
    The reason you here news on it is its a Monopoly Company program.  Also
    the flaw is almost always published first.
    
    Now look at response time to lesser known programs that don;t make CNN. 
    I think you will see very low lead times.
    
    Also closed-source does not define in any way a better understanding of
    the user base.  If Company X used Company Y's tech that now has a hole,
    does the user know?
    
    
    > Andrew Plato 
    > 
    -- 
    Zot O'Connor
    
    http://www.ZotConsulting.com
    http://www.WhiteKnightHackers.com
    



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