The Government Accountability Office released a report on Tuesday stating that the Department of Defense is yet to fully implement a pilot open-source software program as directed by the fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act. Agencies are required by the Office of Management and Budget to establish a pilot program to designate 20 percent of new custom codes as open-source and create metrics for program performance.
GAO noted that DoD hasn’t issued a government-wide policy on using open-source code and has yet to fully conduct software analyses, secure data rights and facilitate the open-source community. In addition, the watchdog said that DoD components were unable to agree on how to manage cybersecurity for open-source activities.
Defense components said that an open-source pilot program would “potentially result in financial benefits and increased efficiency,†according to GAO.
