Open Source Alliance Cyberjaya

Satyam makes strategic investments in Mainframe Technology

Interoperability across OS to benefit customers

BANGALORE, AUGUST 21, 2007 – In a first of sorts, Satyam Computer Services has procured a z9 IBM Mainframe Server that has the capability to run both traditional z/OS and the new Java and Linux workloads. The procurement makes Satyam the first and only company in India to have a Linux installation on z Series IBM Mainframe Server.

“The mainframe will allow Satyam to develop and build innovative transformational service offerings to customers. These could be a variety of innovative services using the interoperable platform in the areas of application transformation, SOA, server consolidation and performance management,” said Mr Pavan Kumar, Chief Technology Officer, Satyam Computer Services.

Using the IBM System z9 Business Class Model 2096-A02 Mainframe, Satyam customers will be able to make legacy applications function more effectively in the current changing business environment.

Read more: TechWhack

Dear all,

Open Hack is a real server break in where we provide a server rigged with holes and misconfiguration for players to test their hacking skills. The aim of the game is for the player to find a way into the server and gain root privileges. Once he/she has root, the player will need to run a script that will replace the server’s index page with the player’s info, acknowledging the player as the sole winner. The server is purposely misconfigured. The player should look for the obvious & non-obvious clues, it’s everywhere.

Date: 22nd August 2007, 12pm – 25th August 2007, 12am (GMT +8)
Time: 50 hours
Venue: Multimedia University VPN Link (Physical server is @ Cyberjaya campus)
IP Address: 10.111.7.220
Registration: Participants will need to connect to MMU Cyberjaya’s VPN in order to play. (Free)

Website: http://openhack.linuxsig.net

Open Hack has been extended until someone wins the challenge or when the organizer says so.
IRC: #linuxsig @ irc.freenode.net

Prize:
The first person to break in, gain root, and run the runme.sh script wins a seat to HITBSecConf2007 courtesy of Hack In The Box.

Rules Of The Game:
Here are some guidelines to prevent you from looking like a lame script kiddie:

* DO NOT bruteforce the server. You’ll die of old age before the password gets cracked.
* DO NOT launch a DoS/DDoS attack.
* DO NOT flood the network

Organizers:
1) Linux Special Interest Group, Multimedia University Melaka Campus
2) Open Source Alliance Cyberjaya, Multimedia University Cyberjaya Campus

In Collaboration With:
Centre for Information Technology Services (CITS), Multimedia University Cyberjaya

Gold Sponsor:
Hack In The Box (M) Sdn. Bhd

Thank you.

Best regards,

IT Society
Multimedia University
Cyberjaya Campus

Microsoft is spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt among open-source users, Linus Torvalds said in an interview published on Friday.

The software giant is falling short with its technology and, because it cannot win against open source on price, it is trying to encourage inertia in the IT industry, the creator of the Linux operating system said.

Microsoft has been at the centre of considerable controversy over the last 12 months, mainly arising from its statements on open source and its technology partnerships with a range of Linux distributors.

Microsoft has claimed that open-source software violates 235 of its patents, but says it will not sue open-source users at the moment. It is this type of claim which angers Torvalds.

“I personally think it’s mainly another shot in the FUD [fear, uncertainty and doubt] war,” Torvalds said in the interview with Computerworld. “Microsoft has a really hard time competing on technical merit, and they traditionally have instead tried to compete on price. But that obviously doesn’t work either, not against open source. So they’ll continue to bundle packages and live off the inertia of the marketplace, but they want to feed that inertia with FUD.”

As well as making assertions over patents, Microsoft has also caused a stir in the open-source world by forming partnerships with Linux distributors, the largest one being Novell.

But despite the controversy, Torvalds remains nonplussed. “I don’t actually think the Novell-Microsoft agreement kind of thing matters all that much in the end, but it’s interesting to see the signs that the sides are at least talking to each other. I don’t know what the end result will be, but I think it would be healthier for everybody if there wasn’t the kind of rabid hatred on both sides,” he told Computerworld.

Read more: ZDNet UK

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — A federal judge’s ruling Friday may help proponents of Linux open-source software sidestep a significant legal threat.

SCO Group Inc. does not own the copyright to Unix operating-system software, as it had claimed, and Novell Inc. (NOVL : 6.42, +0.33, +5.4% ) is the proper owner, U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball said in a filing in federal court in Utah.

SCO Group had sued Novell in 2004 for falsely claiming ownership of Unix.

In 2003, SCO Group filed a high-profile lawsuit against International Business Machines Corp. for contributing code to Linux open-source software that it said included some of SCO’s Unix-related intellectual property. SCO claimed to have purchased rights to Unix from Novell in 1995.

That 2003 suit against IBM (IBM : 112.64, +1.91, +1.7% ) , which has not been resolved, raised questions about the potential for other Linux proponents, such as distributor Red Hat Inc. (RHT : 21.98, -0.32, -1.4% ) , to face similar legal claims.

But in the ruling Friday, Kimball said that “the court concludes that Novell is the owner of the Unix and UnixWare copyrights.”

Read more: MarketWatch

MySQL’s new pricing policy for developers has sparked a debate about its commitment to open source.

MySQL AB has made it harder for developers to use the enterprise edition of its database software for free, sparking a debate about whether the company has strayed from its obligation to its open-source community.

Kaj Arno, MySQL vice president for community, announced in his blog this week that the company will no longer host the code for MySQL Enterprise Server in binary form on its public FTP servers, and will offer that version only to paying customers.

The goal is to make it clearer that the enterprise edition is aimed at paying customers, who also receive support and other services, and that another version of the product, MySQL Community Server, is for developers who use the software for free, he said.

The source code for MySQL Enterprise Server will still be freely available from the MySQL Bitkeeper repository, but not as a single, executable file, also known as a “tarball,” which means it will take more time and effort to install.

Read more: PCWorld

Hacker Halted Malaysia
Crowne Plaza Hotel Kuala Lumpur
13 – 16 August 2007

Hi,

Early Bird Registration Deadline: 15 July 2007!

An event not to be missed!

Information security professionals will converge to this event to share on the latest issues and discoveries in information security today.

Come and learn from the experts.

Event highlights:

Keynote presentations by Sanjay Bavisi
President of EC-Council

Dr. Andrew M.Colarik
Author of “Cyber Terrorism: Political and Economic Implications”

Erik Laykin
Chairman Honorary Council of EC-Council

Drew Williams
Co-Founder of Information Security SWAT Team, and

Dan Hoffman
Author of “Blackjacking: Security Threats to Blackberry, PDAs and Cell Phones in the Enterprise”

5 Tracks covering current issues in the Industry

Pre-Conference Workshops :

• Disaster Recovery (ECDR)
• ECSA / Licensed Penetration Tester
• Cyber Law
• CHFI 3.0
• Linux Security

Exhibiting companies displaying the latest technologies and innovations
Advance registration and conference information is available at www.hackerhalted.com

For more information, please contact marketing@eccouncil.org EC-Council

Source: http://www.professionalsecuritytesters.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=816

LinuxWorld is drawing interest from corporations considering alternatives.

From cautious corporate onlookers trying to gauge how Linux and open-source software fit into enterprise IT systems to the companies now looking to expand their use of open-source applications, a broad swath of IT users are in San Francisco at the annual LinuxWorld Conference & Expo.

What they are looking for depends on where their companies are in the ongoing convergence of corporate IT and open-source software.

Stewart Savage, director of IT for the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District in Fairfield, Calif., said he’s looking for more nonproprietary software that he can add to the school district’s infrastructure. “We come here to see how Linux is maturing over time,” Savage said. “I first came here five years ago, and I was very confused. But a critical mass was achieved where the complexity of learning it was greatly reduced. It’s no longer just for Linux gurus.”

The school district still uses Microsoft Corp.’s Windows on the desktop for its 24,000 students and 1,500 staff members, he said. But all students use the free OpenOffice productivity suite. Teachers get Microsoft Office, but they have the option of using OpenOffice. “A lot of curriculum [applications are only] available for Microsoft Windows, so it’s hard to make that translate to the open-source world,” Savage said.

When the school district first brought Linux and open-source applications into its data center in 2002, it was to primarily to cut costs. “We like to get as much money as possible into the classroom, so if we can save money in the data center with a high level of reliability, we will definitely go with Linux.” For the school system, the focus isn’t on what is cool in IT but on what is good for the students, teachers and supporting staff, he said.

Read more: PCWorld

Linux group will host a strategy summit to build a legal defense infrastructure to protect Linux users from legal challenges

The Linux Foundation Wednesday revealed that two attorneys well-known in the open-source community will make up the legal team for the group, which is aimed at protecting the interests of Linux in the community.

Karen Copenhaver and Andrew Updegrove will serve as attorneys for the foundation, which was created in January with the merger of the Open Source Development Labs and the Free Standards Group. The group’s mission is to promote, protect, and standardize the operating system created by Linus Torvalds.

Copenhaver and Updegrove are no strangers to the Linux and open-source community. Copenhaver, an expert on open-source licensing, is a partner in the Boston firm Choate, Hall & Stewart’s business & technology practice, and most recently served as executive vice president and general counsel at Black Duck Software, which offers IP (intellectual property) risk management and mitigation services and software.

Updegrove is a partner and founder of Gesmer Updegrove in Boston, and is best known for blogging about open source and open standards on his Standards Blog on the Consortiuminfo.org Web site he created and manages. Updegrove has received particular notoriety for his criticism of Microsoft in its quest to make its XML-based document format, Open XML, an international standard.

Read more: InfoWorld

Google has joined the fight to save Linux from an army of patent-waving Microsoft lawyers.

With Redmond threatening to collect royalties from Linux users and distributors across the industry, claiming that the open-source operating system violates 235 of its patents, Google has thrown its considerable weight behind the Open Invention Network (OIN), a consortium of companies bent on protecting open-source software from legal attack.
Click here to find out more!

All OIN members – including big names such as IBM, NEC, Novell, Philips, Red Hat, and Sony, as well as Google – agree not to use their Linux-related patents against each other, and all have free access to a collection of additional open-source-related patents purchased by the consortium as a whole.

“Patent issues…become a much smaller concern inside the community, and OIN members can focus their energy on writing and releasing software rather than vetting their code for intellectual property issues,” wrote Google open source programs manager Chris DiBona on The Official Google Blog. “It’s the legal equivalent of taking a long, deep breath.”

As more names join the OIN, pooling more and more Linux-related patents, it becomes increasingly difficult for a company like Microsoft launch an attack on the OS. “We are very open about our patents,” OIN chief executive officer Jerry Rosenthal told The Reg. “We list them on our website, so that people who might want to do Linux harm understand why it would not be in their interest to bring litigation.”

Knowing they’re protected by the OIN, Google’s DiBona argues, open source developers are more likely to drive the industry forward: “We believe Linux innovation moves fastest when developers can share their knowledge with full peace of mind. We’re proud to participate in an organization that’s making that possible, and we look forward to seeing OIN grow and thrive.”

Google is OIN’s first “end-user licensee,” which means it’s the only member who doesn’t sell, distribute, or develop Linux code. It only uses the OS within the company.

“Google is such a well-recognized and well-thought-of name, we’ll now see other end-users become licensees,” said Rosenthal. “We want to continue to grow this ecosystem of patents, so that ultimately a vast majority of [Linux-related] patents will be available to the community for free.”

Read more: Channel Register

Company Announces New Products, Services and Customers Supporting Energy-Efficient Data Centers and Open Source

LinuxWorld – IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a Big Green Linux initiative to help its clients further integrate Linux into the enterprise as a way to reduce costs and energy consumption by building cooler data centers.

The Big Green Linux initiative supports Project Big Green, a broad commitment that IBM announced in May to sharply reduce data center energy consumption for IBM and its clients.

The announcement was made at a press conference this morning at the opening of the LinuxWorld and Next Generation Data Center tradeshows in San Francisco. Supporting IBM in the event, which included announcements of new products, customers and services, were representatives from the Linux Foundation and Novell.

“With every release of our SUSE Linux Enterprise platform, Novell finds new ways to help customers reduce power consumption through improvements in policy-driven power management and system monitors for servers, along with better suspend functionality for laptops,” said Roger Levy, senior vice president and general manager of Open Platform Solutions for Novell. “We look forward to collaborating with IBM on ways we can improve integration between hardware and software to save customers both energy and money.”

“Businesses, governments and clients around the world are all actively searching for ways to build cooler and more energy-efficient data centers as a way to reduce costs and address environmental concerns,” says Inna Kuznetsova, IBM’s global executive for Linux. “Customers are increasingly turning to the Linux-consolidation capabilities of IBM’s System z and System p platforms, which is one reason IBM estimates that approximately 30% of IBM’s Linux-related server revenue now comes from non-x86 platforms.”

Read more: CNNMoney