ITWeb reports
Zimbra, a global leader in unified collaboration software, [together with] open source specialist LSD Information Technology, [December 11] released the Ponemon Institute's "The Open Source Collaboration Study: Viewpoints on Security and Privacy in the US and EMEA" report.
The report findings confirm a changing perception of open source, to a platform for the development of quality software that enhances privacy and security. Findings from the survey, which was conducted in 18 countries across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) as well as the United States, show that 66% of EMEA respondents agreed that commercial backing and code transparency reduces applications' privacy risks, and 67% agree these improve application security.
[...]By its nature, open source provides a layer of transparency not available in proprietary software. This transparency provides a method to trust but verify, whether a patch's efficacy, for hidden components or backdoors and that software development best practices are followed. This transparency improves code quality, which is an equal partner to security. In support of this, the Ponemon Institute survey found that 76% of EMEA respondents agree that commercial backing and code transparency improves application integrity and trustworthiness.
[...]A sampling frame of 17,680 US and 16,700 EMEA experienced IT and IT security practitioners were selected as participants to this survey. By design, 79% of US respondents and 74% of EMEA respondents are at or above the supervisory levels.[...]
[Ed's Note: There is a hint of 'slashvertisement' here as Zimbra are pushing their own products which, surprise surprise, are based on OS software although that need not negate the results of the survey.]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 28 2014, @10:01PM
from TFA:
The final sample consisted of 1 398 surveys or a 4.1% response rate for the US and 4% response rate for EMEA.
IMO self selection bias is really a problem with a tiny response rate like that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 28 2014, @10:44PM
You seem to be suggesting that people would avoid the opportunity to say "This sucks" about the subject of the poll if that applied.
I know that I wouldn't miss that chance.
Perhaps the results are actually skewed *against* the truth and that even **more** than 67 percent of people in the field think that FOSS is the bee's knees.
-- gewg_
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 28 2014, @10:11PM
Ponemon, Zimbra, LSD Information Technology
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 28 2014, @11:08PM
[Ed's Note: There is a hint of 'slashvertisement' here as Zimbra are pushing their own products which, surprise surprise, are based on OS software although that need not negate the results of the survey.]
At a minimum it means that any other studies they commissioned that reported contrary results were buried. The modern way of corporate lying is to simply keep their mouthes shut about stuff that contradicts their preferred narrative.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by novak on Monday December 29 2014, @05:24AM
I remember in high school how impressed I was with actual open source software and how high quality it was. Compared to anything else you could get for free, it was like night and day, and it didn't take long for me to realize that it was quite often better than stuff you could buy too.
--
novak
novak
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 29 2014, @03:12PM
If I'm not mistaken, aren't ponemon are those little pocket monster things that like to battle?