Software security is a concern for businesses big and small.  With recent network infrastructure attacks making headlines such as the recent attack by cyber criminals on the Italian Senate’s computers.  Microsoft systems have been the target of most of the attacks, largely because they are the most widespread.  However Microsoft asserts that a properly maintained and secured system can be nearly free from attacks.

Microsoft’s systems are in control of government systems throughout the world.  Computers have become the gatekeepers for everything from a city’s stop-sign inventory to weapons deployment.  Security has become the primary concern for most large agencies considering software solutions from Microsoft or open source.

Microsoft’s Government Security Program, devoted to ensuring the security of governmental systems, will share some Windows source code with foreign government experts to ease fears that there might be backdoor access that could allow the U.S. entry into confidential information.

The Brazilian government was the first to peek at the company’s code in 2003.  Microsoft had hoped that the move would entice Brazil to purchase large-scale solutions.  Ultimately, Brazil signed on with IBM and a Linux solution.

Bruce Perens, author of the Open Source Definition criticized Microsoft’s policy:  “You’ll never know if there was another hidden source with a backdoor that you were not allowed to see.”  Perens claimed that open source solutions, despite the wide-spread knowledge of their inner workings, can be secured by allowing government agencies to freely make edits to the source code and compile their own versions.  These customized version, according to Perens, are free of backdoors and security loopholes, mechanisms that the purchasing agency would have to simply trust are not in the source of programs that Microsoft has chosen not to make available for inspection.