“Enterprises across all industries are increasingly using open source software to reduce development costs and accelerate time to market. Yet there are thousands of open source security vulnerabilities reported every year, with 98% of companies unaware of the extent of, and licensing requirements of, the open source code they are using. Additionally, 67% of companies do not monitor their open source code for security vulnerabilities,” said Ian Kilpatrick, chairman Wick Hill Group.
“Because companies today lack visibility into open source code usage and licensing in their organisations,” added Kilpatrick, “they are open to security attacks, compliance issues, and legal action. Heartbleed, ShellShock and other major security bugs attacked through open source vulnerabilities, so it’s a crucial issue.”
Kilpatrick was speaking as it was announced that Wick Hill has been appointed value added distributor for Black Duck Software in the UK and the DACH (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) region. Black Duck is a US-based worldwide vendor, whose industry-leading products secure and manage Open Source Software, eliminating the pain related to security vulnerabilities, compliance, and operational risk. The company is partnering with Wick Hill as part of its drive to grow sales and expand its reach in the EMEA region.
“The advent of the Internet of Things has seen enterprise IT infrastructure shifting from hardware to software. As a result, more and more companies are moving towards open source solutions.” said Kevin Bland, director of channels and alliances at Black Duck Software.
“However, the majority of companies using open source software will acknowledge that they don’t know what open source code they have, where it’s located, or if it has known security vulnerabilities,” he added. “Partnering with Wick Hill will allow us to expand the reach of our increasingly important open source security and management solutions across the EMEA region.”
