Open source advantage

KeeFox is OSI Certified Open Source Software

Open source software has many benefits to you, not least of which is the cost. It is rare to find any open source software which costs money and KeeFox is no exception – it’s completely free.

Security software benefits even more so than other types of software. As has been demonstrated many times in recent decades, public and open security systems are far less likely to be compromised than their closed source equivalents.

The core principle actually dates back over 125 years and boils down to “security through obscurity is no security at all”, i.e. if your security relies on keeping the inner workings of your application secret it is likely that your security is already broken. You can read more on this topic in the fountain of all knowledge (and its associated scientific paper references)

Finally, a quote from a well respected security expert which you will be familiar with if you’ve been to the KeePass Password Safe home page:

“As a cryptography and computer security expert, I have never understood the current fuss about the open source software movement. In the cryptography world, we consider open source
necessary for good security; we have for decades. Public security is always more secure than proprietary security. It’s true for cryptographic algorithms, security protocols, and security source code. For us, open source isn’t just a business model; it’s smart engineering practice.”

- Bruce Schneier, Crypto-Gram 1999/09/15