Pure Hacking, Australia’s leading specialist information security consultancy has challenged the global software development community to improve its development standards and build secure software. The consultancy believes that the corresponding rise in software vulnerabilities and increased risks to data security, business operations and reputational damage have reached a critical point requiring intervention. In line with its vendor-neutral position, the consultancy has confirmed that the open framework Software Assurance Maturity Model, or OpenSAMM methodology, is well placed to define and measure the security resilience of organisations and the software it relies on.

While major software development project problems are often the stuff of headlines, it seems they are more the rule than the exception – and we are getting worse at them.

The current desire of many organisations to accelerate software development projects has led to an unprecedented level of interest in the Agile software development methodology. But while Agile has dramatically shortened the rollout cycles for new projects, project managers have been warned that it in no way reduces the need for independent software testing.

Software testing organisation Planit is aiming to eliminate a contributor to software project failure in large organisations in Australia and New Zealand with a new training course designed to bolster skills in requirements engineering.

In case you’d missed it, Apple doesn’t own the market when it comes to mobile app development. Nokia’s Calling All Innovators contest challenged developers to to create apps that enhance the use of Nokia mobile devices in real-world scenarios. Australian developer Dale Rankine had made the global top 10 for an app developed with the Ovi App Wizard.

A university presentation from developers Long Weekend promises to teach students how to take iPhone apps from concept to development.

IT services company Wipro today inaugurated its new Melbourne development centre.

Lansa, one of Australia’s greatest international software success stories, has wrested back ownership of its global sales network, buying out a Japanese systems integrator to take control of its Lansa Japan office.

What does Microsoft's community open source software repository CodePlex have in common with massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs)? Answer: they both have an enormous surge of activity, traffic and popularity the day a new World of Warcraft (WoW) patch hits the Internet.

Jeff Atwood, one of the two founders behind the popular StackOverflow question-and-answer site, has suffered a complete loss of his entire blog archive including both his personal Coding Horror blog and the StackOverflow blog site. Given Atwood has admonished people in the past for not following his advice on backup regimes what went wrong?