GitHub Warns Java Developers of New Malware Poisoning NetBeans Projects

GitHub issued a security alert Thursday warning about new malware spreading on its site via boobytrapped Java projects, ZDNet reports:
The malware, which GitHub’s security team has named Octopus Scanner, has been found in projects managed using the Apache NetBeans IDE (integrated development environment), a tool used to write and compile Java applications. GitHub said it found 26 repositories uploaded on its…

Arizona meteorite fall points researchers to source of LL chondrites

The Dishchii’bikoh meteorite fall in the White Mountain Apache reservation in central Arizona has given scientists a big clue to finding out where so-called LL chondrites call home. They report their results in the April 14 issue of Meteoritics and Planetary Science. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-04-arizona-meteorite-fall-source-ll.html…

What is pareidolia?

Seeing a dog in a patch of clouds, or a face in the moon, are examples of what’s called pareidolia. Look here for photos to test your own ability to see things that aren’t there. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/seeing-things-that-arent-there…

Ghostcat Bug Impacts All Apache Tomcat Versions Released in the Last 13 Years

Apache Tomcat servers released in the last 13 years are vulnerable to a bug named Ghostcat that can allow hackers to take over unpatched systems. From a report: Discovered by Chinese cybersecurity firm Chaitin Tech, Ghostcat is a flaw in the Tomcat AJP protocol. AJP stands for Apache JServ Protocol and is a performance-optimized version of the HTTP protocol in binary…

The Linux Foundation Identifies Most Important Open-Source Software Components and Their Problems

The Linux Foundation’s Core Infrastructure Initiative (CII) and the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard (LISH) have revealed — in “Vulnerabilities in the Core, a preliminary report and Census II of open-source software” — the most frequently used components and the vulnerabilities they share. From a report: This Census II analysis and report is the first major study of its kind…

Move Over, Silicon Valley: St. Louis, Atlanta, Small Cities Gaining Tech Jobs

Slashdot reader SpaceForceCommander shared Dice’s new annual report on America’s tech industry salaries based on a survey of over 12,800 “technologists”: Columbus and St. Louis enjoyed double-digit year-over-year growth in salaries (14.2 percent and 13.6 percent, respectively), and other cities such as Denver [7 percent] and Atlanta [10 percent] also experienced an ideal mix of growth and high salaries. These up-and-comers…

Unpatched Citrix Vulnerability Now Exploited, Patch Weeks Away

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On December 16, 2019, Citrix revealed a vulnerability in the company’s Application Delivery Controller and Gateway products — commercial virtual-private-network gateways formerly marketed as NetScaler and used by tens of thousands of companies. The flaw, discovered by Mikhail Klyuchnikov of Positive Technologies, could give an attacker direct access to the local networks…

What’s new on Coursera for Business – December 2019

By Kyle Clark, Senior Skills Transformation Consultant Coursera’s university and industry partners launched over 50 courses in December to round out 2019. Our new courses range in topic from the data-heavy – including new AI, cloud, and analytics courses – to cultural intelligence, public health, security management, and business English. Here are our top picks […]
The post What’s new on Coursera…

Open Source Initiative Co-Founder Bruce Perens Resigns, Citing Move Toward License ‘That Isn’t Freedom Respecting’

Bruce Perens (Slashdot reader #3872) co-founded the Open Source Initiative with Eric Raymond in 1998. But on Thursday Perens posted “it seems to me that the organization is rather enthusiastically headed toward accepting a license that isn’t freedom respecting. Fine, do it without me, please. “I asked Patrick to cancel my membership, and I would have unsubscribed from OSI lists, including…

CNBC Reports Open Source Software Has Essentially ‘Taken Over the World’

Slashdot reader DevNull127 writes: CNBC Explores released a 14-minute documentary this month called “The Rise Of Open-Source Software.” It’s already racked up 558,802 views on YouTube, arguing that open-source software “has essentially taken over the world. Companies in every industry, from Walmart to Exxon Mobile to Verizon, have open-sourced their projects. Microsoft has completely changed its point of view, and is…