Malware campaign targets official Python and JavaScript repos

An active malware campaign is targeting official Python and JavaScript repositories.

Software supply chain security firm Phylum spotted the campaign. Phylum said that it discovered the campaign after noticing a flurry of activity around typosquats of the popular Python requests package.

Typosquats take advantage of simple typos to install malicious packages.

In this case, the PyPI typos include: dequests, fequests, gequests, rdquests, reauests, reduests,...

13 December 2022 | Hacking & Security

TIOBE: C++ overtakes Java in programming language popularity

According to the latest TIOBE Index, C++ has overtaken Java in programming language popularity.

The TIOBE Index uses searches across 25 different engines to calculate the popularity of Turing-complete languages. The methodology used for the index has regularly been criticised but it suffices as a rough guide.

Java has been a mainstay in the top three programming languages since the TIOBE Index launched in 2001. However, that impressive streak came to an end this...

12 December 2022 | Java

PyPI maintainers warn of ongoing phishing attack

The maintainers of the Python Package Index (PyPI) have warned of an ongoing phishing attack targeting users.

“Today we received reports of a phishing campaign targeting PyPI users. This is the first known phishing attack against PyPI,” wrote the maintainers in a tweet.

A phishing email is sent to users warning that PyPI is implementing a mandatory ‘validation’ process and that users must follow a link or risk their package being removed:

The...

25 August 2022 | Hacking & Security

PyPI package installs cryptominer on Linux systems

A malicious PyPI package was used to install a Monero cryptominer on Linux systems.

The package in question, secretslib, was pushed to the official third-party software repo for Python on 6th August 2022. The package was described as “secrets matching and verification made easy”.

Sonatype’s automated malware detection system flagged secretslib as potentially malicious. Further analysis proved its suspicions to be correct.

“The package covertly runs...

15 August 2022 | Hacking & Security

Snowflake boosts native python support and data access

A green tree python.

Snowflake, the Data Cloud company, has unveiled new enhancements that improve programmability for data scientists, data engineers, and application developers

The company announced the update this week at its annual user conference, Snowflake Summit 2022, in Las Vegas.

Snowflake’s latest innovations bring Python to the forefront, with the launch of Snowpark for Python, now in public preview, and a native integration with Streamlit for rapid application development and...

15 June 2022 | Developer

Déjà vu: Python wins TIOBE Programming Language of the Year

According to TIOBE, Python was the programming language that stole developers’ hearts in 2021.

It’s the second time in a row that Python has been crowned the TIOBE Programming Language of the Year.

Last month, TIOBE Software CEO Paul Jansen floated the possibility that C# may take the crown for the first time after posting the highest rating growth (+2.21%) in the top 20 of the TIOBE Index in December.

"It is interesting to note that C# has never won the...

4 January 2022 | Languages

2021 Stack Overflow Survey: React.js takes the web framework crown, Python is in-demand, and devs still love Rust

The 2021 edition of Stack Overflow’s developer survey features both substantial changes in the landscape while other elements have remained stubbornly resilient.

In a blog post, Stack Overflow’s Ben Popper and David Gibson wrote:

“This year’s survey was a little different than ones in years past. We opened our 2020 survey in February, and by the time we got around to publishing the results, the reality of work and daily life had shifted dramatically for people...

3 August 2021 | Development Tools

Google announces raft of Play Store security policy updates

Google has announced a number of changes to its Play Store security policies that will come into effect over the coming year.

Starting in September, a new section will be added to Google’s Enforcement policy that will mean inactive or otherwise abandoned developer accounts will be closed after one year of dormancy.

October will see various policies introduced on different dates.

On 15 October, the Device and Network Abuse policy will be clarified to prohibit...

30 July 2021 | Android

Python’s creator shares his thoughts on Rust, Go, Julia, and TypeScript

Python creator Guido van Rossum has shared his thoughts on some of those other programming languages making the rounds.

The “benevolent dictator” himself shared his views in an hour-long interview with Microsoft Principal Cloud Advocate Manager Francesca Lazzeri.

“I love languages, at least in theory,” says Van Rossum. “I always read language tutorials but I’m very bad at actually sort of downloading a language implementation and try to code something because...

24 May 2021 | Go

IBM brings Python data science platform Anaconda to Linux

IBM is bringing the Python data science platform Anaconda to the company’s LinuxONE and IBM Z customers.

Anaconda is the world's most popular Python distribution platform and boasts over 25 million users worldwide. Today’s announcement is the latest part of IBM’s effort to bring popular data science frameworks and libraries to its enterprise platforms.

Barry Baker, VP of Product Management for IBM Z & LinuxONE, wrote in a blog post:

“Data scientists...

18 May 2021 | Artificial Intelligence