In 2022, the Open Source Software Foundation (OpenSSF) set its sights on fixing security problems with the open software supply chain. including joining forces with companies including Apache, Google, Apple, and AWS, and meeting at the White House with the U.S. government's executive branch. . 2022 was a heck of a year for open source security troubles, but at the same time, the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) did its best to help secure vital programming infrastructure. In 2021, not 2022, things went awry in a big way for open source software security. I am, of course, referring to the Log4J vulnerability . It’s been over a year, and it’s still hanging around. This, in turn, woke people outside the developer and security worlds to the dangers to the software supply chain. I’d predicted that open source and Linux developers would take security much more seriously in 2022 . It looks like I was right. To meet these security needs, OpenSSF and numerous other developer players, including Apache, Google, Apple, and AWS, met at the White House with the US government’s executive branch. As White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said when he called for the meeting, it was a “national security concern” that volunteers maintained foundational open source software. Well. Yes, we, the open source community, knew that. Of course, it’s not like the proprietary software development companies have covered themselves with glory. . The year 2023 highlighted major initiatives by OpenSSF aimed at tackling security issues in open source, especially in response to crises such as the vulnerability in Log4J.. OpenSSF, Open Source Security, Supply Chain Efforts. . Brittany Day
This week the Federal Government will open its data to web developers during its first hack day. Around 150 attendees are expected to descend on the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra for GovHack, where developers will be encouraged to test the effectiveness of mash ups between Australian Government data sets and commercial APIs. . Event producer, John Allsopp said the Government was keen to actively open its data this way. "What [hack days] are really about is getting people to work with APIs and data sets that particular organisations have available, and it's becoming a relatively mainstream event in the developer world," Allsopp said. The link for this article located at Network World is no longer available. . Event producer, John Allsopp said the Government was keen to actively open its data this way. 'What . federal, government, developers, during, first. . Alex
Security developers representing four of the major browser firms have met up to discuss how to combat security threats. Techies working on Internet Explorer, Mozilla/FireFox and Opera teamed up with the folks from Konqueror to discuss how to combat security risks posed by phishing, aging encryption ciphers and inconsistent SSL Certificate practices. A surprising amount of consensus emerged through the informal meeting, hosted by Konqueror's George Staikos in Toronto last week. . All agreed to push ahead with plans to introduce stronger encryption protocols. "With the availability of bot nets and massively distributed computing, current encryption standards are showing their age," Staikos writes. "Prompted by Opera, we are moving towards the removal of SSLv2 from our browsers. IE will disable SSLv2 in version 7 and it has been completely removed in the KDE 4 source tree already." The link for this article located at SNPX is no longer available. . Web engineers collaborate to enhance security algorithms and tackle online fraud and cybersecurity risks.. Browser Security, Strong Encryption, Developer Collaboration, Phishing Defense, Cybersecurity Initiatives. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
CodeCon is the premier showcase of active hacker projects. It is an excellent opportunity for developers to demonstrate their work, and for coding hackers to find out about what's going on in their community. All presentations must be accompanied by . . . . CodeCon is the premier showcase of active hacker projects. It is an excellent opportunity for developers to demonstrate their work, and for coding hackers to find out about what's going on in their community. All presentations must be accompanied by functional applications, ideally open source. Presenters must be one of the active developers of the code in question. We emphasize that demonstrations be of *working* code, and reproducible by other people. Throughout the event, we will have several kiosks and local servers available for demonstration purposes. CodeCon strongly encourages presenters from non-commercial and academic backgrounds to attend for the purposes of collaboration and the sharing of knowledge by providing free registration to workshop presenters and discounted registration to full-time students. We hereby solicit papers and demonstrations. * Papers and proposals due: December 1, 2002 * Authors notified: December 15, 2002 * Demonstration materials due: January 15, 2003 The focus of CodeCon is on working applications which: * enhance individual power and liberty * can be discussed freely, either by virtue of being open source or having a published protocol, and preferably free of intellectual property restrictions * are generally useful, either directly to a large number of users, or as an example of technology applicable to a larger audience * demonstrate novelty in technical approaches, security assumptions, and end-user functionality Possible topics include, but are by no means restricted to: * development tools - languages, debuggers, version control * file sharing systems - swarming distribution, distributed search * community-based web sites - forums, weblogs, personals * securityproducts - mail encryption, intrusion detection, firewalls Presentations will be a 45 minutes long, with 15 minutes allocated for Q&A. Overruns will be truncated. Submission details: Submissions are being accepted immediately. Acceptance dates are September 1, November 1, and December 1. On each acceptance date, submissions will be either accepted, rejected, or deferred to the next acceptance date. The conference language is English. All submissions should be accompanied by source code or an application. When possible, we would prefer that the application be available for interactive use during the workshop, either on a presenter-provided demonstration machine or one of the conference kiosks. Ideally, demonstrations should be usable by attendees with 802.11b connected devices either via a web interface, or locally on Windows, UNIX-like, or MacOS platforms. Cross-platform applications are most desirable. Our venue may be 21+. If you are submitting and are under 21, please advise the program committee; we may consider alternate venues for one or more days of the event. If you have a specific day on which you would prefer to present, please advise us. To submit, send mail to
At a recent Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference , developers and lawyers battled it out on issues of crypto and freedom. "... the unique annual meeting that brings together an unlikely combination of programmers, activists and government officials -- two . . .. At a recent Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference , developers and lawyers battled it out on issues of crypto and freedom. "... the unique annual meeting that brings together an unlikely combination of programmers, activists and government officials -- two very different events took place simultaneously." The conference, complete with luminaries such as Zimmerman, Diffie, and John Gilmore from the FSF, points out the opposing views on the issues. The link for this article located at Salon is no longer available. . Techies and attorneys clashed on digital currency and liberty during the Digital Rights and Future Summit.. Crypto Issues, Developer Collaboration, Legal Perspectives, Digital Freedom. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
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