Supporting the fight against the causes of insecure software

Veda Advantage is proud to announce that it will be sponsoring the first Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) meeting in New Zealand on Tuesday 22 May.

OWASP is an organisation dedicated to finding and fighting the causes of insecure software. It is an open community dedicated to enabling organisations to develop, purchase, and maintain applications that can be trusted. OWASP is a non-profit charitable organisation and participation is free and open to all.

John Roberts, NZ Country Director of Veda Advantage, said “Veda Advantage is delighted to be able to support the development of an important global non-profit organisation in New Zealand . Veda Advantage has been at the forefront of information and business intelligence for many decades. Issues such as privacy, data security and business intelligence have been part of our commercial landscape since the inception of our company and our industry. We support the goals of OWASP and we be helping to develop strategies for these goals to be implemented in New Zealand .”

The purpose of the meeting will be to discuss NZ’s OWASP strategy including an explanation of why OWASP is launching in NZ and what it wants to achieve. The Web Security Dossier and OWASP’s top ten projects will also be covered.

Veda Advantage is custodian of the country’s largest database of credit files for more than 2.5 million credit-active New Zealanders. The vast majority of applications for credit in New Zealand are checked against the files held by Veda Advantage – protecting business from financial risk and assisting consumers to access credit products appropriate to their risk profile. The company’s credit reporting system was one of the earliest and largest information networks in New Zealand and gives real experience of the challenges of data protection and business efficiency in this information age.

OWASP was started in 2000 and operates with freedom from commercial pressures allowing it to provide unbiased, practical, cost-effective information about application security. It is not affiliated with any technology company, although it supports the informed use of commercial security technology. Similar to many open-source software projects, OWASP produces many types of materials in a collaborative, open way.

The meeting is open for all interested and registration is available at: www.owasp.org/index.php/New_Zealand