I wish I would have been at this conference. But all I get to read is this report. Sounds like the Defense community is quickly learning that open source breeds more security, not less:When someone brings up the current state of national intelligence, “open” is hardly the first word that comes to mind. Surprising, then, that “open sourcing” was the buzzword at this week’s Department of Defense Intelligence Infor I wish I would have been at this conference. But all I get to read is this report. Sounds like the Defense community is quickly learning that open source breeds more security, not less:When someone brings up the current state of national intelligence, “open” is hardly the first word that comes to mind. Surprising, then, that “open sourcing” was the buzzword at this week’s Department of Defense Intelligence Information System conference, titled Leveraging Technology to Enable the Warfighter, held in Chicago. From Dale Meyerrose, assistant director of the Department of National Intelligence, to Scott McNealy, chairman of computer networking powerhouse Sun Microsystems Inc. and Sun Federated Inc., the conference’s 2,000 attendees and speakers projected the same message: Open is the new closed.If you read far enough in the article, you’ll see some off-the-wall (and unfounded) comments on open source as a profitable way to make money, but the rest is dead on:Thankfully, despite the open-source buzz, clandestine sources are still exactly that. And though it sounds counterintuitive, intelligence security is depending increasingly on the other kind of open source: open source software. “[Open source solutions] have been a trend, starting as early as the 1990s,” said Bill Vass, president and chief operating officer of Silicon Valley-based Sun Microsystems Federal Inc., in a telephone interview. “It has been evolving in the intelligence community, and more and more in defense.” Sun, though not required to disclose exactly how much, does “a good chunk” of business with the national defense and intelligence community, according to Vass. The foundation of open source software—everything from operating systems to applications—is public access to the actual program code…. “Secrets are what get you in trouble,” said Vass’ partner Scott McNealy, chairman and co-founder of Santa Clara, Calif.-based Sun Microsystems and Sun Federal. “If there’s a secret, a back door, a loophole, that secret’s going to get breached and it’s going to create a problem. With open source, you have no secrets, no vulnerability.”I’m not sure how Scott was demoted to “partner” at Sun Microsystems, but I agree with his words. Open source = more security, not less. It’s no surprise, then, that many of my own company’s customers include those that place a premium on safety and security (US Federal Aviation Administration, UK’s Ministry of Defense, French Air Force, plus others, including one that would surprise you…). Open Source