The number of disclosed open source software vulnerabilities in 2019 reached over 6000, up from just over 4,000 in 2018, a new WhiteSource report says. “This can be attributed to the rise in awareness to open source security following the widespread adoption of open source components and the massive growth of the open source community…

1 in 10 open source components downloaded in 2018 had a known security vulnerability

This year’s Sonatype report reveals the best practices exhibited by exemplary open source software projects and commercial application development teams. As in years past, it also examines the rapidly expanding supply and continued exponential growth in consumption of open source components. For the fifth anniversary report, Sonatype collaborated with Gene Kim from IT Revolution, and…

Growing reliance on open source libraries leaves many companies vulnerable

Organizations are becoming increasingly dependent on open source libraries (OSLs) to develop code for software and websites. However, Jing Xie, senior threat intelligence researcher for Venafi, warns that the growing reliance on OSLs for software development leaves many companies vulnerable to trust-based attacks. Cybercriminals use trust attacks to maliciously manipulate and insert code into open…

Framing supply chain attacks

The increase in the demand for innovative software has effectively reshaped the software development industry itself. Today, speed and agility are paramount and development teams are pushed to deliver highly advanced applications in record time — which means that writing every single line of code from the ground up is often not a sustainable practice….

For recent big data software vulnerabilities, botnets and coin mining are just the beginning

The phrase “with great power comes great responsibility” was excellent advice when Ben Parker said it to his nephew Peter, aka Spiderman. It is even more applicable to any organization using open source software to manage their big data analysis. This is especially true since, in 2018, significant vulnerabilities were identified and disclosed for both…

Ubuntu 17.10 brings enhanced security and productivity for developers

Canonical released Ubuntu 17.10 featuring a new GNOME desktop on Wayland, and new versions of KDE, MATE and Budgie. On the cloud, 17.10 brings Kubernetes 1.8 for hyper-elastic container operations, and minimal base images for containers. Enhanced security and productivity for developers The Atom editor and Microsoft Visual Studio Code are emerging as the new wave of…

Why end-to-end encryption is about more than just privacy

The question of whether regular people need end-to-end encryption will surely be debated for quite some time. But for Alan Duric, CEO and co-founder of Wire, the question can only have a positive answer. As he told the audience at the FSec security symposium in Varazdin, Croatia, end-to-end encryption is about more than just privacy…

Equifax attackers got in through an Apache Struts flaw?

Have the attackers responsible for the Equifax data breach exploited a vulnerability in Apache Struts, a popular open source framework for developing web applications, to compromise the company’s networks? Equifax has yet to share more details about how the attack was pulled off, but a report by financial services firm Robert W. Baird & Co….