Introducing OpenTDF: Open source, accessible security for developers

At Virtru, we believe that the ability to securely share data is essential — and that privacy is a human right that must be protected. It’s a mission we have stuck by since we started in 2011, and sees us supporting over 7,000 organisations worldwide to protect their most valuable asset, their data, with Zero-Trust security and powerful, granular policy controls that tie identity to data, everywhere it moves.

Now, Virtru is giving developers a new way to build security...

28 July 2022 | API

‘Protestware’ emerges amid Russia-Ukraine crisis

Some open-source developers are using their projects to target users in Russia after the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

The invasion of Ukraine has been almost internationally condemned. The actions of Russian forces are being investigated for numerous war crimes and the targeting of civilians in areas like Mariupol has equated to genocide.

State-controlled media and harsh penalties for protests mean that a large number of Russians believe the Kremlin’s narrative...

21 March 2022 | Open Source

GitHub incentivises open-source investments with sponsor-only repos

GitHub is launching private repositories that only sponsors have access to, helping to incentivise open-source investments.

Open-source mostly relies on developers voluntarily giving up their time to build and improve projects. Priority is naturally given to work that helps to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table—meaning that open-source projects can be underdeveloped at best or be left with devastating vulnerabilities at worst.

A growing number of...

3 February 2022 | Git

Open-source can play a critical role in tackling the UK’s developer shortage

It is no secret that developers have never been more in demand. According to a recent analysis, the shortage of “programmers and software development professionals” only ranks behind HGV drivers and nurses as the occupation where worker shortages are most acute in the UK.

The sheer pace of digital transformation across every industry means the demand for developer talent continues to outstrip supply at a rapid rate – and the situation shows no sign of abating. Just about...

25 January 2022 | Git

Library deliberately corrupted by its developer relaunches as community project

A popular library that was deliberately corrupted by its own developer has been relaunched as a community-driven project.

Last week, Developer reported that users of open-source projects depending on the ‘colors’ and ‘faker’ libraries by Marak Squires were confronted with their applications indefinitely printing gibberish messages on their console—rendering them useless.

Squires corrupted his own libraries, seemingly in retaliation for others using them for...

17 January 2022 | Open Source

Google wants to increase government collaboration to secure open-source

Google says that it wants to increase government collaboration to help secure open-source after participating in a White House summit.

On Thursday, Google participated in the White House Open Source Software Security Summit with the aim of building on its “work with the Administration to strengthen America’s collective cybersecurity through critical areas like open-source software.”

The past year has been particularly bad for open-source security problems, with...

14 January 2022 | Hacking & Security

Open-source developer corrupted his own popular libraries

An open-source developer intentionally corrupted his own libraries that have been used by thousands of projects.

Users of open-source projects that depend on the ‘colors’ and ‘faker’ libraries by Marak Squires were confronted with their applications indefinitely printing gibberish messages on their console—rendering them useless.

The colors library receives over 20 million weekly downloads on npm alone and has almost 19,000 projects depending on it. The faker...

10 January 2022 | Open Source

GitHub Octoverse 2021: Developer diversity is increasing, code is shipping faster than ever

The 2021 edition of GitHub’s annual Octoverse report highlights a welcome increase in the diversity of the developer community alongside many other interesting trends.

According to the report, almost 60 percent of active GitHub users are now distributed outside North America. The world’s largest repo service is seeing the fastest user growth in Indonesia, Brazil, India, Russia, Japan, Germany, Canada, the UK, and China.

Developers are both writing and shipping code...

16 November 2021 | Git

Appwrite raises $10M to build its open-source Firebase rival as community grows by 40,000

Appwrite has raised $10 million to build its open-source rival to Google’s Firebase amid rapid developer community growth.

The open-source Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS) provider raised the cash via two successive seed funding rounds led first by Ibex Investors and Seed Camp and followed by Bessemer Venture Partners and Flybridge Capital Partners.

Flybridge is a particularly interesting investor as the firm was an early investor in Firebase back in 2013.

Uri...

28 September 2021 | Development Tools

Linux Foundation: Companies are struggling to find open-source talent

The Linux Foundation and edX have released the 2021 Open Source Jobs report which reveals the struggle companies are having in finding talent.

As the world recovers from the pandemic, the general talent shortages across industries have been well-documented. However, the new report shows just how pronounced the problem is when it comes to hiring open-source expertise.

Technology helped to keep the world moving during the pandemic and even the most resistant-to-change...

21 September 2021 | DevOps