Developers of open source software projects should be just as concerned about security as anyone developing a proprietary app. However, the nature of the two development processes can be very different at times, and debate still rages about which is inherently more secure -- a secret code kept by a company, or a public one that all eyes can see.

As open-source coding begins to appear with increasing regularity in commercial software products, government users need to be aware of the potential security vulnerabilities in open-source code, industry experts say.

IT managers often assume that open source software is more secure than proprietary commercial software. Anyone who uses open source can examine the original code to spot any lurking vulnerabilities, and potentially even fix the vulnerabilities themselves. With proprietary software, you have to trust the vendor to do it all for you.

"Like the Hatfields and McCoys, some debates are as old as the hills, and no one ever seems to win. In the IT industry, security pundits have long been arguing the question of whether Linux is more secure than Windows with similarly inconclusive results."

The debate rages over whether open source browsers such as Firefox and Konqueror provide better zero-day attack protection than proprietary browsers such as Microsoft's Latest News about Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) and Opera Software's Opera browser.

One security outfit which conducted a study into the use of open source software in the enterprise, the results of which are published today, seems to think so. It states that "Open Source Software (OSS) development communities have yet to adopt a secure development process and often leave dangerous vulnerabilities unaddressed."

One security outfit which conducted a study into the use of open source software in the enterprise, the results of which are published today, seems to think so. It states that "Open Source Software (OSS) development communities have yet to adopt a secure development process and often leave dangerous vulnerabilities unaddressed."

The Chrome developers at Google have released version 27 of their browser to the Stable release channel for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and Chrome Frame for Internet Explorer.

Having many more eyes watching the code and a community of developers backing up users, open source security applications provide a wide range of options and made-to-order uses. Here's a list of 10 serious open source security applications, gathered via the word-of-mouth of the CSOs who use them.