How to Explain the Security Advantages of Open Source
In a recent conversation with my family, we all shared that our personal information had been stolen through one cybersecurity breach or another… at this point, whose data hasn’t? But the discussion led me to explain the security advantages of open source code versus proprietary counterparts in their data-layer infrastructure.
It wasn’t long before someone asked the reasonable question: “But… if the code is open to everyone, how is that safer than keeping it secret?”
There’s a special joy in explaining something seemingly counterintuitive but nevertheless true. I’ll tell you what I was excited to tell them.
Small Security Teams Versus Communities of Thousands
Open source code is often more secure precisely because it’s open for all to see. You might reason that code completely exposed to potential hackers gives them every opportunity to discover successful angles of attack. That’s true, but thousands of open source community members also have those same opportunities.
Open source code is battle-tested by myriad developers and organizations who are actively working to expose and address security flaws (while also improving the software’s reliability and functionality). Best of all, these individuals and teams across the world collaborate and openly share their insights and expertise to resolve identified bugs and vulnerabilities, doing so with the speed and seamlessness you’d expect from so much combined and coordinated effort.
Not to knock proprietary development teams — which do the best they can with finite resources — but even the largest internal team cannot match the security-hardening capabilities of a vast open source community. (Take the especially strong communities of Apache Cassandra and Apache Kafka as a couple of examples.)
At the same time, open source invites organizations to understand exactly how their data infrastructure tools function at the code level, making integrations simpler and outcomes more predictable.
Open Source Will Stay Open, Even if a Fork Is Necessary
The free and transparent access to code that defines pure open source software’s security advantages also comes with the peace of mind that communities will fight to keep it that way. Adopting proprietary software puts organizations at risk of potential vendor and technology lock-in, limiting their agility to change course if a solution falls short of their needs (security or otherwise).
There are also cases where vendors offering open source software will change to a new license that allows for “open core” practices, which can restrict code transparency and are often simply proprietary software by another name.
The good news for organizations that feel like a vendor is pulling the rug out from under them in this way: Communities won’t stand for it. The industry has seen numerous examples — including recently with the Valkey Redis fork — of vendors switching to less purely open source licensing, which are followed by the community swiftly taking back control by supporting a fork.
For this reason, the security advantages of an organization’s open source tool of choice are sure to remain available, even if vendors have other ideas.
An Open Book for Regulatory Security Audits
Depending on the industry and regions where your organization does business, it may be subject to particular regulatory compliance frameworks designed to enforce secure practices.
Businesses that rely on proprietary software — and therefore cannot access its code — can’t conduct independent security audits to ensure the compliance they’re responsible for (and that might reveal existing vulnerabilities or malware). The best these organizations can do is keep up-to-date on vendor-provided security upgrades that they have no visibility into… and hope those are enough.
In contrast, open source code lets organizations tap into fully independent third-party auditing. It also gives them the ability to implement unique tailored security standards and protocols as necessary to ensure compliance.
Choose Your Own Secure Data Storage
Proprietary solutions can require organizations to use the data storage they provide, possibly because their product only functions with that one storage environment, or because the vendor has a business arrangement with that storage provider. Whatever the security of that environment, that’s what you get.
Those using open source in their data infrastructure can store their data wherever they want, be it on a public or private cloud, on-premises, or using a hybrid or multicloud solution. That latitude makes it simple to leverage the most advantageous and secure data storage that fits your needs.
Security Experts and Managed Offerings Abound
Skilled security experts continue to be in high demand and challenging to recruit. That said, vast open source communities and their natural collaborative processes create far more experts than proprietary options have.
It’s the same story when looking at enlisting a managed partner for critical data infrastructure: Open source software simply cultivates more individuals capable of securing those solutions at the highest levels.
Openness Is Security
The fact that open source software has a superior security profile stops being counterintuitive when you consider that poor visibility into application processes enables attacks to succeed. Attackers thrive in the opaque environments proprietary software offers. Open source software puts its code out in the light, inviting attackers to do their worst, and enabling thousands of users across the world to unite in making that code as secure as it can be.
