Apple fix more than 20 security flaws in October update

Paul Mah — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:20:28 -0400

The SA-2008-10-09 security update released by Apple on Thursday patches more than two dozen security flaws relating to both the Mac OS X as well as fixes to other bundled open-sourced projects. Some of the open-sourced packages are Apache, ClamAV, CUPS, PHP, MySQL, and Tomcat. Mac-specific software such as ColorSync and Finder are also patched in the latest update. The update is available either from the Software Update system preference, or from Apple's website. Indeed, security researchers criticized Apple's patching procedures for being "a mess" just a few weeks ago. The argument is that Apple's ad-hoc patching schedule doesn't exactly engender it to the enterprise, which needs to allocate time for testing before rolling it out.

To read up more about the security patches from Apple:
- check out this CNET News article

Barracuda wants to buy Sourcefire

Paul Mah — Fri, 30 May 2008 07:21:43 -0400

Antispam appliance vendor Barracuda has revealed that it made a $186 million offer for Sourcefire. This is 13 percent more than the company's current stock price, though half of what it was worth a year ago. Founded by the creator of the well-known SNORT intrusion detection and prevention software, Sourcefire also owns the ClamAV open source antivirus project, which it acquired in August last year.

Barracuda leverages on ClamAV in its appliance products and it is not known if the offer is a direct result of the looming threat of litigation from competitor Trend Micro, which claims that ClamAV violates a patent it holds. In an open letter, Barracuda did note that it is "uniquely positioned to address and remedy" this situation.

For more on Barracuda's offer:
- check out this Network World article

Clamav

Apple fix more than 20 security flaws in October update

Barracuda wants to buy Sourcefire