Unicode Security Mechanisms, Version 3 Released

Version 3.0 of UTS #39, Unicode Security Mechanisms has been released by the Unicode Consortium, together with a new version of the associated UTR #36, Unicode Security Considerations. Because the Unicode Standard contains such a large number of characters for the writing systems of the world, caution is necessary to avoid exposing programs and systems to possible security attacks. These revised documents describe security considerations for Unicode and specify improved mechanisms for reducing the risk of problems.

Version 3.0 is a major revision. Significant changes include:

• Mixed Script Detection has extensive revisions to its specification.
• Restriction Level now has an explicitly defined process.
• Mixed Number Detection now has an explicitly defined process.
• Conformance requirements have been extended to include Restriction Level and Mixed Number Detection.

http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr36/
http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr39/

Version 15 of UTS #18, Unicode Regular Expressions has been released by the Unicode Consortium. Regular expressions are used throughout much of the world's software for matching and manipulating text. UTS #18 provides the foundation for the handling of Unicode text in those expressions.

Version 15 is a major revision. Changes include:

• Conformance clauses dealing with non 1:1 equivalences were either retracted or modified.
• A Level 2 conformance clause for full properties was added.
• New properties, including Name_Alias matching and Script_Extensions, were added.
• A recommended compact form of Unicode escapes was added: \u{...}.
• There were many clarifications of the text. See http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr18/tr18-15.html

Dr. Vinton G. Cerf to Keynote IUC 36!

Dr. Vinton G. Cerf, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist at Google has just been announced as the keynote speaker for the 36th Internationalization & Unicode Conference. Dr. Cerf has served as vice president and chief Internet evangelist for Google since October 2005. In this role, he is responsible for identifying new enabling technologies to support the development of advanced, Internet-based products and services from Google. Dr. Cerf is widely known as one of the “Fathers of the Internet,” for being a co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols. For details please see the on-line announcement: http://www.unicodeconference.org/e/IUC36-07-02-12.htm