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I work for a company that sells hardware products with Linux embedded into the product. We lost a job for a defense contractor due to our hardware running Linux. Their reason was "because it's open source and a security risk". On the flip side, we sold the product to the US Marines several years ago and they specifically required that we run Linux.

Is Linux more or less secure due to its open source nature?

Jim
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    The problem with this topic is that people do not define their terms or talk about different things using similar terminology. Your best bet is to ask the contact there. Too many people roll up a lot of different kinds of risks into the term "open source". – schroeder Mar 04 '19 at 15:21
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    tl;dr of the duplicate: no, there's no basis for saying that Linux is less secure just because it's open-source. – Joseph Sible-Reinstate Monica Mar 04 '19 at 15:26
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    Or, to put it another way, "secure against what?" Without defining that, it's all guesses about whatever the speaker cares about. – schroeder Mar 04 '19 at 15:30
  • Agreed. As a rule, open source typically means more secure. But as @schroeder said, “secure” is vague and might mean something different to your prospect. I’d get more information from them about what they mean and what they want. – securityOrange Mar 04 '19 at 16:00

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