Heartbleed bug
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A Primer on the Open Source Movement from a Health Care Perspective
Open source, in myriad forms, has emerged as a significant development model that drives both innovation and technological dispersion. Ignore it at your peril, as did the major computer companies destroyed or totally remade by Linux and free software, or encyclopedia publishers by Wikipedia, or journalists and marketers by social media. The term "open source" was associated first with free software, but it goes far beyond software now. People around the world use open hardware, demand open government, share open data, and--yes--pursue open health. The field of health, in particular, will be transformed by open source principles in software, in research, in consultations and telemedicine, and in the various forms of data sharing all these processes call for.
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Heartbleed, an Apache License Business Model Failure?
The two year old HeartBleed bug that was recently discovered in OpenSSL and that affects millions of internet users, reveals a similar problem that could have a serious impact on the way we look at open source software. Companies such as Cisco have built expensive applications on top of OpenSSL. Security consultants have been paid good money to guarantee that OpenSSL was safe. But the OpenSSL project itself was driven by a core of only four unpaid volunteers. The German engineer Robin Seggelmann is now taking the blame for the error. His code was verified by Dr. Stephen Henson who overlooked the bug. It would be unfair to blame these two individuals for the problems caused by Heartbleed. They made two mistakes. The second mistake was a minor error in their code. Although this error took huge proportions, they should be forgiven for that error. Their first mistake was their choice to make their code available under the Apache Software License. That mistake is more problematic.
Internet Of Thingbots: The New Security Worry
Phishing and spam attacks involving Internet of Things devices are coming -- and app developers and device makers must be ready, says a CA Technologies exec.
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Open Source Forms the Backbone of the Most Significant Projects
Organizations large and small are changing their approach to open source software (OSS). Increasingly, OSS is being viewed as more than just a development tool, but as a strategic asset. And the implications of this change are becoming clear... Read More »
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Tech Giants Back Initiative For Funding Crucial Open Source Projects
The nonprofit Linux Foundation has announced the Core Infrastructure Initiative, a multi-million dollar project aimed to fund open source projects critical for the global information infrastructure, and a dozen of big tech companies have joined it and will be providing the funds. Since the discovery of the OpenSSL Heartbleed bug some two weeks ago, the one positive thing brought forth by it is a better understanding of the limitations of open source software development.
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Who Needs Heartbleed When Many Dot-Govs Don't Even Encrypt Communications
More than a quarter of federal websites are not properly configured with software to prevent intruders from intercepting data entered by citizens, according to a new study...
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Why Open Source Is a Safe Choice for Government Agencies
Already prevalent in big data applications and many other software solutions regularly employed by agencies, open-source technologies are a natural fit for the public sector. Their ability to combine distributed peer review and transparency drives software innovation at an accelerated pace and at a significantly lower cost.
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