Open Source

All software is guilty until proven innocent

COMMENTARY | Agencies must embrace "shifting left," an approach that takes securing software in mind at the beginning of the development lifecycle.

  • By Chris Wysopal

Why the USAF's IT chief is 'bullish' on open source

While there's no such thing as completely secure software, open source can make it stronger through the "power of the crowd," said Lauren Knausenberger, the Air Force's chief information officer.

  • By Lauren C. Williams

What makes hackathons work

Steve Kelman share recent research on how successful hackathon teams turn out functioning products.

  • By Steve Kelman

How a software bill of materials can help solve our supply chain woes

As the software equivalent of a list of ingredients seen on food labels, an SBOM would reveal the provenance of direct and indirect dependencies contained in a particular piece of software.

  • By Matt Howard

Google wins decade-old software case against Oracle

The Supreme Court ruled that Google was within its rights to copy and repurpose 11,500 lines of Java software code in the Android mobile operating system.

  • By Adam Mazmanian

Why feds shouldn't fear GitHub

Agencies shouldn't be afraid to leverage open-source tools like GitHub during software development, a USCIS IT official said.

  • By Derek B. Johnson

DOD pushes back on open source

The Government Accountability Office wants the Department of Defense to implement governmentwide open source software requirements, but the Pentagon's top tech official has other plans.

  • By Lauren C. Williams

The semantics of disinformation

DARPA thinks it can detect automated disinformation campaigns across a range of media by focusing on common machine-generated errors.

  • By Derek B. Johnson

Watchdog: IRS botched Linux migration

Poor IT governance has prevented the IRS from making progress on a long-term effort to migrate 141 legacy applications from proprietary vendor software to open-source Linux operating systems, according to an audit.

  • By Derek B. Johnson

Why user buy-in is the key to blockchain success

An organization can't put a blockchain vision in motion unless employees understand and buy into the impact it will have on them, the entire organization and its business processes

  • By Aleks Zelenovic

IBM to acquire Red Hat in $34B deal

In the largest acquisition in its history, IBM is buying Red Hat, the leading distributor of the open-source operating system Linux, in a move designed to bolster its hybrid cloud offering.

  • By Chase Gunter

The disinformation game

The federal government is poised to bring new tools and strategies to bear in the fight against foreign-backed online disinformation campaigns, but how and when they choose to act could have ramifications on the U.S. political ecosystem.

  • By Derek B. Johnson

Oracle rips innovation shops

In comments on a planned governmentwide modernization scheme, database firm Oracle called on the federal government to rethink open source and hiring software coders.

  • By Adam Mazmanian

Trump names top IC CIO

CIA open source leader John Sherman has been tapped to serve as CIO of the intelligence community.

  • By Adam Mazmanian
Featured eBooks

Energy Department releases code to count bats in the dark

Pacific Northwest Laboratory researchers are making the thermal imaging software available to energy companies to help with offshore wind turbine siting.

  • By Mark Rockwell

Buy vs. build to reduce insider threats

Commercially supported open source comes with both cost and security benefits.

  • By Rob Morrow

VA chief talks commercial Vista

Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin told House appropriators that the agency was closing in on a decision about the future of its homegrown electronic health record.

  • By Adam Mazmanian

Former Microsoft chief launches government data site

Steve Ballmer's $10 million government data site offers scope and scale, but transparency advocates warn that it's not a management tool.

  • By Chase Gunter

CMS 101

Content management systems have grown more powerful and easier to use, but there are still some important factors for government users to consider.

  • By William Freedman

The real story about COTS for the VA

An advocate for the VistA system warns a rush to commercial electronic health records could come with serious risks.

  • By Deanne Clark

GSA moves one step closer to replacing DUNS

The General Services Administration released an RFI looking for input on an open numbering system for federal procurement.

  • By Mark Rockwell