Security pros release open-source CERT

Backed by Google, a group of respected computer security pros launch oCERT, an effort to be the go-to place for security incident response for open-source projects, reports eWeek.

Worried about the state of security incident response among open-source software projects, a group of computer security professionals has launched an ambitious effort to manage the coordination of vulnerability warnings and patch release information between open-source vendors large and small.

The new organisation, called oCERT (Open Source Computer Emergency Response Team), emerged from stealth mode at this year's CanSecWest security conference with a grand plan to be the go-to place for security incident response when an open-source software project is affected.

A visiting Red Hat executive has said that wariness on the part of a number of government CIOs over adopting open source is not a reflection of Australia's tech savvy, but the result of a "lack of understanding" of the software and its community, says BuilderAU.

After a study released earlier this month claimed that open source is no longer a "cottage industry" in Australia, a group of CIOs from the government's three largest agencies, the Department of Defence, the Australian Tax Office and Centrelink, said they remained cautious over adopting open source.

Mobile operating system developer Symbian is adding SQL and location-based services to its smart-phone OS, reports eWeek.

Symbian officials said the new OS technologies, announced March 31, would provide enhancements to mass data handling and LBS to next-generation smart phones.

Mobile phones loaded with Symbian's LBS were recently launched in Japan. Symbian said the LBS architecture would appear in Europe later in 2008. Symbian SQL will be featured in phones shipping in the second half of 2008 and be available to application developers by the end of the second quarter.