EVER since 2007, Techrights has covered many examples from the UK where the use of proprietary software -- especially Microsoft software -- is rather extensive.
Chinese cyber-spies penetrate Foreign Office computers
[...]
China has penetrated the Foreign Office's internal communications in the most audacious example yet of the growing threat posed by state-sponsored cyber-attacks, it emerged tonight.
William Hague told a security conference in Munich that the FO repelled the attack last month from "a hostile state intelligence agency". Although the foreign secretary did not name the country behind the attacks, intelligence sources familiar with the incidents made it clear he was referring to China. The sources did not want to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the issue.
“Nobody should be shocked that China routinely penetrates government systems in the West if it is made so easy.”Novell's proprietary software too turns out to have new flaws [1, 2], even in products that have existed for many years, unlike young one that Novell is promoting (see the PR circus about Vibe and a bit about Henderson and John Stetic of Novell).
Due to the code being secret, developers have little or no incentives to polish it and secure it. In general, proprietary software tends to be less secure, as indicated in fact by a lot of studies. If the UK wants its security to be improved, then it's time to embrace transparency. Secrets leak sooner or later anyway, causing far more damage than disclosure of something that was done under public scrutiny all along. ⬆