Sean Michael Kerner

As users increasingly rely on their smartphones and other mobile devices to store personal information, the security concerns that have long plagued the PC realm begin to pose a threat to the wireless world. In response, Juniper Networks is rolling out a suite of security offerings geared for protecting mobile devices, along with a research […]

As the leading gateway to content and applications across the Web, Google bears a singular responsibility for detecting and evading malware and other online security hazards, such as phishing and spam sites. And it’s not a task that the company takes lightly. At the SecTOR security conference in Toronto, Google research Fabrice Jaubert provided a […]

These days, it seems like the open source Linux operating system is just about everywhere. Consumer devices running the gamut from smartphones and e-readers to TVs are running Linux, so maybe it’s time for two of the primary organizations built around the OS to join forces. The Linux Foundation is in the process of merging […]

From the ‘Not the Prize You Expected‘ files: Firefox 3.6.x and 3.5.x users are all potentially at risk from a new 0 day vulnerability linked to the Nobel Peace Prize website. Though the flaw is technically a 0 Day – and there is currently no patch from Mozilla, in my opinion users shouldn’t be too […]

Just where is Ubuntu heading? Founder Mark Shuttleworth made some waves on Monday with the announcement that the distribution would adopt the Unity desktop shell in lieu of the familiar Gnome shell. But Shuttleworth’s vision doesn’t end there. Speaking to reporters from the annual Ubuntu Developer Summit, Shuttleworth laid out his goals of broadening the […]

From the ‘Fuzzing Fun‘ files: TORONTO. I’m a fan of fuzzing, which is basically a way to throw garbage input at an application to see if it will break. At the SecTOR security conference currently underway in Toronto, Dr. Thomas Proll of Siemens explained how he goes about fuzzing proprietary protocols. Proll explained that in […]

Ubuntu Linux is about to take a sharp turn, with founder Mark Shuttleworth announcing on Monday that the next release will use the Unity interface as its default Linux desktop. Shuttleworth, speaking at the Ubuntu Developer Summit, also announced his plans to bring in new financial contributions to sponsor open source development projects. But the […]

It’s not just for the PC anymore. Adobe AIR, the company’s application runtime technology, is spanning into the mobile arena with the 2.5 release, which encompasses the BlackBerry Tablet OS, Android and some television platforms. Adobe is billing the release of AIR 2.5 as a path for Flash developers to build applications that will run […]

From the ‘Missed Opportunities‘ files: The Fedora 14 Linux release codenamed ‘Laughlin’ is just around the corner — which means it’s now time for Fedora community to name Fedora 15. Back in May, I thought that Vegas was the obvious choice. The way that Fedora choose its release names has to do with a relationship […]

With the 1.8 release, Asterisk is sending a message to developers. For those looking to develop commercial or internal phone systems using Asterisk who may have been sitting on the sidelines, the new release, out this week, will be supported through at least the next four years. In addition to long-term support, Asterisk 1.8 offers […]

The OpenStack project has gotten off the ground and up and running at brisk pace. Launched in July as a joint effort of NASA and Rackspace, the open source cloud computing project is now out with its first release of what it bills as “production-quality” code. Now, OpenStack has the support and contributions from more […]

From the ‘Linux Foundation is Working‘ files: It seems to me that hardly a week goes by when I don’t see a release about yet another vendor joining the Linux Foundation. This week, the vendor is OpenLogic, an open source support and services vendor that I’ve covered for many years. It struck me as odd […]