Air Force wins award for Open Source Implementation
The 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic made several Federal agencies find ways to encourage teleworking as a means of minimizing the spread of H1N1. The Department of Defense was no exception, and DoD telework usually requires specially-issued hardware to securely connect to DoD systems.
But telework on DOD systems usually requires government-furnished equipment to provide a trusted endpoint for remote access. Without a trusted endpoint, remote access opens sensitive DOD systems to the threat of unauthorized intrusions and the loss of sensitive data. DOD wanted a more practical method than providing computers for each worker on short notice.
The Air Force Research Laboratory successfully deployed Lightweight Portable Security (LPS), an Open Source project licensed under the GPL, to meet the new telework requirement.
Essentially, LPS is a bare-bones, hardened Linux system that includes additional Open Source software
Open source was chosen because it was readily available, easy to inspect for risks, easy to understand understand and customizable. The broad base of users and developers provided a good support-base uncommon in the DoD. LPS built new features including Common Access Card (CAC) support necessary across the DoD.
The final LPS-Public edition isn't doesn't only have a small technology footprint (the image is only 124M image), because the team started with an existing Open Source project, the cost-savings to the taxpayers was substantial.
For their work and innovation at best cost, the Air Force Research Laboratory won a 2010 GCN Award.
