Firefox 3.5 Released

The good folks behind Mozilla's Firefox made its highly anticipated Firefox 3.5 available today.

As we've discussed before, One of the most interesting advancements to come out of Firefox 3.5 (and IE8) is mainstream cross-domain XHR. Due to the same origin policy concept that all major browsers adhere to, web applications are only allowed to make AJAX-style requests from the browser to their own server Cross-domain XHR provides mainstream support for mashups, but without security underlying it, most enterprises will not adopt them.

The latest startup from the Institute for Cyber Security to go live, SafeMashups, Inc., provides such a authentication and authorization framework in its free web toolkit and SafeMashups Community Service.

Along with enhanced JavaScript enhancements in both mainstream browsers (and Safari 4's recent release), the language's prominence and status has grown. It'll be worthwhile to see what improvements come down the pipes in the next few years.

Erhan J. Kartaltepe,
erhan.kartaltepe-at-utsa.edu

Follow ICS on Twitter

Sure you read the Institute for Cyber Security blog to read up on the interesting world of its startups and cyber security news, and you visit the ICS site to learn more about its startup incubator program and next-generation security labs, but you feel there's something missing. You want to read the views of ICS's staff on programming, web security, startups, cloud computing, mashups, and more almost as soon as its staff thinks them.

Well, now you can.

Follow ICS on Twitter and drink from the ICS stream of consciousness.

Erhan J. Kartaltepe,
erhan.kartaltepe-at-utsa.edu

Institute for Cyber Security Incubator in the News

The E-Commerce Times has a fascinating two-part article covering the myriad ways someone with an idea can start up his or her own tech startup. One way Pam Baker shrewdly discusses is through capitalizing on the skilled expertise startup incubators like the one at the Institute for Cyber Security. As I state in the article, "if the startup is selected, ICS helps with its research and development at an agreed-upon amount of labor for the billing of its chief architects, developers, security analysts and so on, in exchange for equity in the company." Part One can be found here, and the entire article is worth reading if one is looking to take an idea to the next level.

The San Antonio Business Journal just published an article that discussed how UTSA, the university ICS works under, just received a sum of grant money from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund to be available to staff and faculty through a supplement to the award that established ICS and its Incubator.

Additionally, the LefftyStrat blog just ran a post on some of the cyber security efforts going on in San Antonio, including how organizations such as the NSA and Microsoft are locating in part because of its convenience to ICS in general and ICS's Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security in specific.

Look for more news from the Institute for Cyber Security soon! Also visit the ICS site to learn more about ICS Labs, the Incubator, and how your company can apply.

Erhan J. Kartaltepe,
erhan.kartaltepe-at-utsa.edu

Nine Cloud Computing Myths

ComputerWorld has a great article on some of the myths of cloud computing. For example, myth one isn't so much a mythbuster as a clarification of what "cloud computing" actually means in context--infrastructure, platform, or software as a service. Myth seven--that a cloud provider can guarantee security--is an especially important point for those looking to take advantage of proposed security benefits with cloud computing/

As the author states near the end of the artuicle, the cloud isn't about carefree computing, but a new and complex resource that requires understanding and hard work to manage correctly.

Erhan J. Kartaltepe,
erhan.kartaltepe-at-utsa.edu

Entrust and SafeMashups Team Up to Protect Mashups

SafeMashups, Inc., the latest startup from the Institute for Cyber Security to go live, has teamed up with Entrust to further secure web 2.0 protocols. Entrust is a large SSL certificate authority and only the latest in growing number of SSL CAs to interoperate with SafeMashup's free Web Toolkit and SafeMashups Community Service.

As Ravi Ganesan, founder and CEO of SafeMashups states, "Emerging mashup innovations such as cross domain XHR and OAuth offer many benefits to online users, but also introduce new threats. Customers of Entrust SSL certificates can use MashSSL to strongly authenticate the business partners participating in these productive mashups for their employees or customers, helping to reduce unnecessary risks."

For more about the recent OAuth security hole that exposed a man-in-the-middle vulnerability in Twitter and how MashSSL can be used as a workaround to it, visit our post on the subject here.

Look for more good news from SafeMashups soon!

Erhan J. Kartaltepe,
erhan.kartaltepe-at-utsa.edu

Ravi Sandhu Appointed Editor-in-Chief of IEEE "Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing"

Dr. Ravi Sandhu, Executive Director of the Institute for Cyber Security, has been named editor-in-chief of IEEE's prestigious Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (TDSC) journal. Having been the founding editor-in-chief of ACM's Transactions on Information and System Security journal from 1997-2004, Ravi is no stranger to the responsibility of overseeing the quality of such distinguished publications. We at ICS are proud of Ravi's latest accomplishments!

Erhan J. Kartaltepe,
erhan.kartaltepe-at-utsa.edu

HotCloud Conference on Cloud Computing

Next week's HotCloud conference, the largest such dedicated to cloud computing by as prestigious an organization as Usenix, will cover a wide variety of topics related to service and storage, scalability and programming models, and security.

One topic that we at the Institute for Cyber Security find interesting comes from the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems, whom have have outlined a Trusted Cloud Computing Platform. The paper and presentation appears to be geared toward Infrastructure-as-a-Service providers, with a forthcoming prototype based on the design as the next step.

A trusted system in the field of cyber security is a system that is relied upon to a specified extent to enforce a specified security policy. Cloud computing is a nascent idea in the scheme of things, but builds upon a well-established enterprise community. Integrating the "old" with the "new" should make cloud computing an exciting field for developers and security analysts alike.

Erhan J. Kartaltepe,
erhan.kartaltepe-at-utsa.edu

Apple's Safari 4 Released

Apple released Safari 4 out of its release candidate status today.

As with Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3.5  (in beta), Safari comes with cross-domain XHR. Unlike its competition, however, Safari already had it, so its implmenetation is more mature. Cross-domain XHR provides mainstream support for mashups, but without security underlying it, most enterprises will not adopt them. The latest startup from the Institute for Cyber Security to go live, SafeMashups, Inc., provides such a authentication and authorization framework in its free web toolkit and SafeMashups Community Service.

Along with its enhanced JavaScript enhancements spurred on by Google Chrome, the capabilities of a browser broadened their invention nearly fifteen years ago. These next few years should be more interesting, still!

Erhan J. Kartaltepe,
erhan.kartaltepe-at-utsa.edu

What Does Innovation Incubation Look Like?

As regular readers of this blog know, the Institute for Cyber Security runs a sophisticated incubator for startups who have great ideas with a cyber security focus. I came across an interesting article discussing San Antonio's growing cyber security growth as well as ICS's prominence

Of most recent note was San Antonio winning the Air Force Cyber Command award last month. According to a recent Business Journal article, proximity to so many other cyber innovation technology and research institutions played a role. Of course San Antonio is the home to the ICS Incubator, ICS Labs (our research wing), and ICS's Center for Infrastructure Assurance & Security, all world-class facilities.

The article also covers other technical medical innovations throughout the city, but the focus is fundamentally on cyber security and incubation. Innovation begets innovation, perhaps?

Erhan J. Kartaltepe,
erhan.kartaltepe-at-utsa.edu

UK Web Host Unveils an Innovative Mashup Contest

As is well-documented, we at the Institute for Cyber Security enjoy both mashups and contests. So imagine our delight when 34SP, a web host located in the United Kingdom, announced its mashup contest yesterday.

In fine British fashion, their only requirement is that the mashup have to do with pubs in some way. More information on the contest, as well as a link to their rules, can be found at their contest site. We might humbly suggest securing that wonderful new mashup with MashSSL, invented by SafeMashups, the latest company to emerge from the ICS Incubator!

Image is of Kyrie's, a famous pub in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Erhan J. Kartaltepe,
erhan.kartaltepe-at-utsa.edu