Open source may have many benefits over closed systems, but don't count security among them--yet. This article looks at why open source software may currently be less secure than its commercial counterparts.

Several years ago I wrote a few articles on whether open source software has security benefits, including The Myth of Open Source Security. Since then I've had open source developers tell me over and over again that now there is no myth of open source security. Some of those people will say, "Building secure software is difficult, open source or not; neither open source nor proprietary code should be considered a crutch." Others will say, "Open source developers are more clued in to security issues due to a better sense of community, and their software is more secure as a result."

By John Viega at ONLamp.com

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