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Google Hands Out Web Security Scanner

Posted by Soulskill on from the like-giving-deodorant-to-your-special-friend dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Apparently feeling generous this week, Google has released for free another of their internally developed tools: this time, a nifty web security scanner dubbed skipfish. A vendor-sponsored study cited by InformationWeek discovered that 90% of all web applications are vulnerable to security attacks. Are Google's security people trying to change this?"

1 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I don't trust it by mrjatsun · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    I like Google and their products. I use them all the time.

    But I am concerned about them and every other company which keeps information
    on me... It's total out of control.

    While I don't have a lot of concern on what Google does with the information today..
    I do worry about criminals getting a hold of the information (if they haven't, it's just a
    matter of time). And I do worry that the company Google is today will not be the
    same as the company Google is tomorrow.

    I agree with your assertion that you are replying to FUD... But, in some ways,
    your reply is FUD too.. While Google may be better than all those other
    companies today, does that make the data collection they do OK. It's not
    a question specific to them.

    > and they also provide tons of great open source products.

    I consider Google to be opensource neutral. They open source very little
    of their code. I would like to know how much money, as a company, they
    spend on open source software vs the money spent on all software they
    write.. I would expect a very low percentage.

    i.e. personally I would like to look through the code for the gmail client,
    maps, reader, jabber client, calendar, etc. None of this is core to their income
    stream. I believe it would help dramatically improve other websites on
    the web over time.

    What about their e-mail server, IM server, calendar, etc?

    I understand why they would keep their search algorithm closed.
    Their data and how they mine it is where their real value is.
    It certainly is their prerogative to to keep everything else closed
    too... But I certainly wouldn't call them open source friendly.