Raleigh, NC and Wash. D.C. — (press release excerpt) — The first Open Source Security Summit. The Security Summit will take place at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. on October 29, and will be cohosted by Dell.

The Security Summit will provide an open forum to discuss and explore how open source technologies, methodologies, tools, and support processes meet the challenges of securing networks and computer systems.

The Open Source Security Summit program will feature a global list of industry experts, including:

• Marcus Sachs, the White House Office of Cyberspace Security
  
• Bill Caelli, Queensland School of Software Engineering and Data Communications
  
• Rob Walker, Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA)
  
• Steve Christey, MITRE Corporation
  
• Shawn Hernan, CERT Coordination Cente

Keynote speakers, panelists and attendees will explore the assertion that the open source development model – based on code access, community resources and peer-to-peer design review – results in a more secure software product. Other topics to be discussed include:

• Security innovation and homeland defense
  
• Mandates of the open source community in relation to software integrity, design quality and responsiveness
  
• Impact of collaboration and standardization on vulnerability accountability and responsiveness.

“Conventional perceptions of security are predicated on the assumption that hidden is secure,” said Stacey Quandt, Giga Group, a leading IT industry analyst. “Newspaper headlines on security vulnerabilities in many of the markets established by proprietary operating environments underscore the fact that hackers can and do find and exploit back doors and code vulnerabilities. Today some of the most secure operating systems are based on the open source model. The question begs how can you be sure that your environment is secure if you are running a proprietary operating system that cannot be examined or verified for secure coding?”

“The time is now for the IT industry to re-evaluate critical infrastructure security perceptions and realities,” said Shawn Hernan, team leader of vulnerability handling, CERT Coordination Center, “The industry can benefit by tearing down the walls that have prevented the flow of information in the past and the open source community can help lead the way.”

 
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