Bristol Council's Open Source Plan Thwarted by Security Clearance Problems

Bristol City Council's open source push has suffered another series of set-backs that point a finger of blame at CESG, the cyber security arm of government intelligence unit GCHQ. Leaders at the local authority claim that the need for CESG security certification of e-mail systems effectively means the council has no choice but to buy Microsoft.

Senior Cabinet Office IT leaders have been asked to help as Bristol's faltering open source strategy, still showing little progress after a year, highlighted problems besetting the coalition government's own open source policy. Councillor Mark Wright, architect of Bristol's IT strategy, said the problems had led him and council leader Barbara Jenke into a confrontation with council officers...