The NASA Open Government Initiative has launched a new Web site to expand the agency’s open source software development. Open source development, which invites the public access to view and improve software source code, is transforming the way software is created, improved and used. NASA uses open source code to address project and mission needs, accelerate software development and maximize public awareness and impact of research.
In 2009, the White House issued the Open Government Directive, which requires federal agencies to take specific steps to achieve milestones that are transparent. NASA’s Open Government Plan has been recognized as one of the best. NASA was among several federal agencies recognized with two leading practices awards from the White House for achievement above and beyond the requirements in the “Participation and Collaboration” and “Flagship Initiatives” categories of the Open Government Directive.
“The site represents a natural extension of NASA’s efforts to inform, educate and include the public in our mission to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research,” said Deborah Diaz, NASA’s Deputy Chief Information Officer. “Citizen involvement in our work is a critical component of our success.”
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The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) has received a $1.5 million contract to produce an online environment that would let multiple design teams work together to develop new military vehicles.
The VehicleForge project’s goal is to create a secure central website and other web-based tools and methods that would facilitate such collaborative development. The work is sponsored by the Tactical Technology Office of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
“The aim here is to fundamentally change the way in which complex systems are taken from concept to reality,” said Jack Zentner, a senior research engineer who is leading the project for GTRI, along with research scientist Nick Bollweg. “By enabling many designers in varied locations to work together in a distributed manner, we’re confident that vehicles – and eventually other systems – can be developed with greater speed and better results.”
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In the past week, the Kenyan media has been awash with reports that cyber cafes are ditching proprietary software for the perceived cheaper and user-friendly open source software.
This was prompted by a step up in the fight against piracy by software maker Microsoft in conjunction with the Kenya Copyright Board (Kecobo).
The duo has, in the recent past, raided several businesses suspected to be dealing in unlicensed Microsoft software, confiscating computers and instituting legal action against offenders.
The raid on businesses followed a 30-day amnesty that was issued by Kecobo in November 2011, urging end-users running counterfeit software on their computers to discontinue illegal use and acquire genuine versions without penalty.
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The control of US military spy drones appears to have shifted from Windows to Linux following an embarrassing malware infection.
Ground control systems at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, which commands the killer unmanned aircraft, became infected with a virus last September. In a statement at the time the Air Force dismissed the electronic nasty as a nuisance and said it posed no threat to the operation of Reaper drones, but the intrusion was nonetheless treated seriously.
“The ground system is separate from the flight control system Air Force pilots use to fly the aircraft remotely; the ability of the pilots to safely fly these aircraft remained secure throughout the incident,” it said.
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Today we are launching code.nasa.gov, the latest member of the open NASA web family. Through this website, we will continue, unify, and expand NASA’s open source activities. The site will serve to surface existing projects, provide a forum for discussing projects and processes, and guide internal and external groups in open development, release, and contribution.
In our initial release, we are focusing on providing a home for the current state of open source at the Agency. This includes guidance on how to engage the open source process, points of contact, and a directory of existing projects. By elucidating the process, we hope to lower the barriers to building open technology in partnership with the public.
Phase two will concentrate on providing a robust forum for ongoing discussion of open source concepts, policies, and projects at the Agency. In our third phase, we will turn to the tools and mechanisms development projects generally need to be successful, such as distributed version control, issue tracking, continuous integration, documentation, communication, and planning/management. During this phase, we will create and host a tool, service, and process chain to further lower the burden to going open.
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Open Security:
How the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Open Security Technology (HOST) program leverages open source software in support of national cybersecurity objectives
by Dana Blankenhorn
Open Security: it sounds like an oxymoron. Military intelligence. Open security.
It isn’t. Open security may be the most important innovation yet in our battle against online bad guys.
It starts from simple truths. Security is a necessity. All intelligence is now software. Bad guys need to find just one hole to break into a system, while good guys have to protect against every possible vulnerability.
This can’t be done without cooperation. Just as we have standard tools and procedures for securing buildings and infrastructure, we must have them in software. Security has to be built-into systems, and software should not be installed into them before it is proven secure.
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Federal agencies within the US government are often slow to adopt new technologies and practices. Over time, these agencies become policy- and process-driven – often due to legislative and acquisitions requirements. Changing the culture in these agencies is extremely difficult and typically requires a high level crisis or action-forcing event.
Deep and looming budget cuts are driving radical change in the way government agencies procure, develop, and deploy technology solutions. Until recently government agencies have been reluctant to change rigid procurement policies that precluded the use of open source software. Several government agencies are seriously looking at open source software and its associated rapid development practices in response to oncoming budget cuts. An added benefit is the technical agility that comes along with open source practices.
The Department of Defense, Intelligence Agencies (notably the NSA, Whitehouse.gov, and the Veteran’s Administration) are just a few examples where policy for open source software use has been reversed, encouraging the use of open source software in critical mission areas. The most recent agency to adopt an open source technology strategy is the National Geospatial-Intelligenc Agency (NGA).
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The Defense Information Systems Agency has updated the Application Security & Development Security Technical Implementation Guide, clarifying a commonly-misunderstood Defense Department policy that many saw as a hurdle to open source software use at DoD.
AppDev STIG (Version 3, Release 4), published Oct. 28, states that software only requires designated approving authority if:
- The source code is not available to review, repair and extend; and
- If there is a limited warranty or no warranty, but a warranty is required for mission accomplishment
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Cultural barriers and misunderstanding of security risks remain the biggest blocks to the public sector’s wider implementation of open source, the civil servant tasked with boosting open source has told UKAuthority.com.
Robin Pape, chief information officer for the Home Office and the senior responsibility officer within government for open source and open standards, said open source software is still not being given appropriate consideration when government bodies evaluate software options.
“The primary reason open source isn’t considered is cultural - government customers and its leading suppliers have largely been happy to procure proprietary commercial software and have not been aware of, or had experience with, open source alternatives”. Pape said in an email interview with UKauthorITy.com. “This is changing, and we can encourage this change by recognising that an “intelligent customer” function requires both a technical and commercial understanding of open computing, as well as a difference in how the market is engaged.”
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A shocking lack of basic discipline and intelligence security at the unit in which Bradley Manning worked before his arrest for allegedly transferring the largest trove of state secrets in American history toWikiLeaks has been revealed at his pre-trial hearing in Fort Meade, Maryland.
Under cross-examination by Manning’s defence team, the head of the intelligence unit at the military base in Iraq where Manning was posted painted a picture of staggeringly loose controls. Soldiers were allowed to store movies on secure computer databases, were permitted to bring in commercial music CDs to areas where secure computers were in operation, DVDs were left strewn about and there was no system for checking that classified information was not removed from the building.
Captain Steven Lim told the hearing that he was shocked when he was presented with a set of memorandums from Manning’s immediate supervisor, Master Sergeant Paul Atkins. The memorandums chronicled emotional behaviour on Manning’s behalf dating back to before he was deployed to Iraq in October 2009.
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