20090701 US DHS with Microsoft Inside Afraid of Windows Zombies

From s5h.net

US 'concerned' over cyber threat

The issue of cyber security is of "great concern" to the US, the nation's homeland security secretary has said. Janet Napolitano told the BBC that protecting against virtual attacks was something the US was "moving forward on with great alacrity".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8126668.stm The BSA pressured DHS to adopt Microsoft on the face of it. The Huge Hidden Cost of Microsoft Software

Yesterday I wrote about a report from ACT that brought up the issue of TCO for free software. As I pointed out there, it's old news that free software has costs; but what is more interesting is the fact that fans of the proprietary world always fail to point out the huge hidden costs of using poorly-written closed-source software. Here's a great demonstration of my point: The `Conficker worm' caused chaos when it hit Manchester town hall in February. Now we can reveal the bug cost the council more than £43,000 in lost' bus lane fines. The computer problems meant 1,609 tickets could not be issued within the 28-day legal limit - rendering them useless. In total, the Conficker worm cost taxpayers in Manchester nearly £1.5m, the M.E.N has learned. A £1.2m bill in the IT department, including £600,000 getting ‘consultancy support’ to fix the problems, which including drafting in experts from Microsoft; £178,000 in extra staffing costs across the town hall – including £169,000 going to clear up a backlog of benefits claims and council tax bills; Compensation payments due to delays in processing benefit claims. A few things to note here.

http://www.computerworlduk.com/community/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=2316&blogid=14

Recent

DHS project aims to bring open-source software to state and local agencies

The Homeland Security Department is funding a program that will help federal, state and local agencies better understand their options for using open-source software. DHS' Science and Technology Directorate will fund the Homeland Open Security Technology (HOST) project, which will start with a one-year, $1.5 million contract and possible additional years to follow. The University of Southern Mississippi and the Open Source Software Institute (OSSI) will conduct the work, and the Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command will handle the contracting and help with guidance for the program.

http://gcn.com/articles/2009/06/11/dhs-open-source-project.aspx