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IBM offers developers free security tools

Big Blue adds new tools to AlphaWorks as it looks to beef up its security offerings.

Dawn Kawamoto Former Staff writer, CNET News
Dawn Kawamoto covered enterprise security and financial news relating to technology for CNET News.
Dawn Kawamoto
EAST PALO ALTO, Calif--IBM unveiled two free security tools for software developers that are designed to enhance automatic data encryption and to increase security for Java applications.

Big Blue on Thursday said it is adding the tools to AlphaWorks, a 10-year-old online program that offers free software tools, as the company looks to beef up its security offerings.

"Our customers are saying, '(cyber)criminals are organized, and we aren't,'" Stuart McIrvine, IBM director of corporate security strategy, said during an SDForum security conference here.

One of the new tools, AlphaWorks' IBM Secure Shell Library for Java, automatically encrypts data, including passwords and data in files, as it moves from one computer to another.

IBM also introduced a tool called Security Workbench Development Environment for Java, which is designed to enable developers to configure and validate Java applications that support both Java and the Open Services Gateway Initiative (OSGI) industry security standards.