computer science

Open security

Open security is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Open security rather than just read about it. In short: Open security is the use of open source philosophies and methodologies to approach computer security and other information security challenges. Traditional application security is based on the premise that any application or service (whether it is malware or desirable) relies on security through obscurity.

Key takeaways

Open security belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Open security to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Open security from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Open security is the use of open source philosophies and methodologies to approach computer security and other information security challenges. Traditional application security is based on the premise that any application or service (whether it is malware or desirable) relies on security through obscurity. Open source approaches have created technology such as Linux and Bitcoin. Additionally, open source approaches applied to documents have inspired wikis and their largest example, Wikipedia. Open security suggests that security breaches and vulnerabilities can be better prevented or ameliorated when users facing these problems collaborate using open source philosophies. This approach requires that users be legally allowed to collaborate, so relevant software would need to be released under a license that is widely accepted to be open source; examples include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) license, the Apache 2.0 license, the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), and the GNU General Public License (GPL). Relevant documents would need to be under a generally accepted "open content" license; these include Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) and Attribution Share Alike (CC-BY-SA) licenses, but not Creative Commons "non-commercial" licenses or "no-derivative" licenses. On the developer side, legitimate software and service providers can have independent verification and testing of their source code. On the information technology side, companies can aggregate common threats, patterns, and security solutions to a variety of security issues.

See also Kerckhoffs's Principle OASIS (organization) (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project) Open government Homeland Open Security Technology Open source Open source software Open-source hardware

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Open security

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Open security claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Open security before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Open security ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Open security

In research: Open security appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Open security in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Open security is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Cybersecurity engineering, Free culture movement, Free software culture and documents, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Open security outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Open security in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Open security means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Open security out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Open security in simple terms?

Why does Open security matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Open security?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Open security.