IT security firm trusts open source inside and out

In 1996, entrepreneur Richard Campbell started a company to help other entrepreneurs in East Asia become Internet service providers. His "ISP in a box" concept worked with Slackware as its base. The more experienced Campbell became with open source, a concept he originally discovered in college, the more he began to appreciate tools like Snort, a GPLed network intrusion detection system. "I became a strong proponent of it," Campbell says, and shortly after that he founded the Atlanta Snort Users Group.

Campbell had so much confidence in Linux and Snort that he decided to launch a new company called Securiant. As its flagship product, Campbell created a network appliance that runs on a custom Linux kernel with a big suite of open source security applications, including Squid, Snort, Dan's Guardian, Nessus, Shorewall, and Argus. The SpiderISA appliance plugs into the network and provides up-to-the-minute information about vulnerabilities, necessary patches, and intrusion attempts..... Article