In response to the mass surveillance of citizens and businesses, there is a case for the adoption of publicly auditable open source software to protect Scottish sovereignty.
This paper looks at the implications of whistle-blower Edward Snowden’s revelations of the global nature of US and UK mass surveillance of innocent citizens and businesses. It looks at the case of spying on the Brazilian national oil company, Petrobas, and the response of the Brazilian government. It makes the case for the adoption by businesses and government of publicly auditable open source software to protect Scottish sovereignty, and argues that Scotland could quickly become a global leader in an emerging market for open source software.
― Scotland needs a national open source transition plan with urgent attention given to infrastructure critical to national security.
― The Scottish Government should amend government procurement legislation to favour open source software, recognising that software code that is publicly auditable is more trustworthy and publishing code under open source licenses has substantial community benefit.
― Public sector bodies should, wherever possible, negotiate for existing third-party software to be relicensed as open source.
― Scottish Enterprise guidelines should be amended to better support open source software, including the commercialisation of open source and the development of innovative new user interfaces.
― Scotland must recognise and invest in critical infrastructure by establishing a stream of grant funding for projects deemed critical to Scottish security, sovereignty and commerce.
― All Scottish Government communications should be sent over encrypted channels, and encryption strongly encouraged in the private sector.