Open Source Antivirus

1. Developing Open Source AntiVirus Engines
   According to its Web site, the OpenAntivirus Project is “a platform for people seriously interested in antivirus research, network security and computer security to communicate with each other, to develop solutions for various security problems, and to develop new security technologies.” Among these technologies are Scanner Daemon, Virus Hammer and Pattern Finder, which are “a first implementation of a GPLed virus scanner written in Java.” This article will take a look at the OpenAntivirus AV engine, assess its progress so far, and offer some suggestions of how the developers can continue to develop it. While some of the commentary in the following sections may be fairly critical, the purpose of this paper is not to flame the OpenAV project or its developers but, on the contrary, to salute their efforts. Hopefully, this article and the comments herein will make a significant contribution to the development of a viable, working open source antivirus product.
   
2. Open Source Anti-Virus for the Whole Network
   Until recently, there was not a strong open source presence in the anti-virus realm. Now, however, there is more than one project in this arena, and the ClamAV project in particular is proving its ability to provide software scanning in a way that's adaptable and effective. In the spirit of the Unix philosophy, Doug McIlroy said, "Write programs that do one thing and do it well. Write programs to work together." ClamAV demonstrates just how effective this model continues to be. The ClamAV engine simply filters any input given and outputs a basic summary stating whether a virus was detected. This simplicity makes it appropriate for scanning content on a local file system, network file system, Web proxy, mail gateway, or whatever.
   
3. ClamAV antivirus Open source
   ClamAV For Windows is a completely free and open source anti-virus software package. ClamAV is an open source antivirus solution for UNIX/Linux operating systems. It features a command line interface for scanning files, updating the virus definitions, and a daemon for faster scanning needed on high performance systems. ClamAV is a security software that protect your PC against virues. Unlike most antivirus products, ClamAV requires no yearly subscription fee, and is completely free with source code to anyone who wishes to use it. Because ClamAV is released under the GPL v2 license, you must follow all license requirements if you modify the ClamAV source code, or use it in your own projects. The SOSDG has taken the latest ClamAV from the CVS tree, compiled it against the current stable Cygwin DLLs, which provide a full UNIX/Linux compatibility layer for Windows operating systems.
   
4. Open Source Not Ready for Anti-Virus
   Anti-virus software is definitely a challenge for the open-source model, and while there is at least one active program, there's no good evidence of how well it works. The anti-virus business is an interesting one. On the one hand, it's amazingly competitive on a worldwide basis, even if Symantec dominates the U.S. consumer market; there are a lot of companies in this business. But it's also a disappointing business technologically. The companies are not out to solve a problem as much as to acquire an annuity stream in the form of subscriptions for signature updates. So where does the free software movement fit in all this? For their own purposes, viruses and the other things a signature-based scanner would find are a comparatively minor problem. If you're a Linux or BSD user, there aren't many viruses that can attack you. But there are plenty of file and mail servers running on Linux that service Windows users.
   
   
5. Clam AntiVirus: Open source vs. the bad guys
   Protecting against viruses has become an inherent part of using a computer, thanks to the pervasiveness of email, a favorite delivery platform for malicious code. Open source software, in the form of Clam AntiVirus, can help you detect these rogue programs before they hit your inbox, whether you run Linux or Windows. In fact, you can install ClamAV on a wide range of operating systems, either through pre-compiled binaries or by a source code build. This flexibility gives ClamAV a distinct advantage over competing products in the virus detection arena, which often ignore users with older or non-mainstream operating environments. If you detect a malicious executable within your network, you may submit your suspicious file to the ClamAV database for the benefit of the whole community, a process which accelerates the response and detection time for newly spreading viruses. Because the users pitch in, ClamAV doesn't have to charge for subscription updates, as most commercial vendors do.
   
6. Open-source antivirus tech may get commercial
   To plug a hole in its intrusion-prevention product, eEye Digital Security may adopt the Clam AntiVirus project and improve the open-source software. eEye's Blink intrusion-prevention product includes system- and application-level firewalls and protects computers against phishing, spyware and exploitation of known vulnerabilities. "Antivirus is the only missing piece," Ross Brown, eEye's chief operating officer, said in an interview with CNET News.com. Blink is used by about 250 organizations worldwide, including the U.S. Army and the Department of Homeland Security, according to Brown. Some want the product to include antivirus support, so eEye is considering its options, including adopting the Clam AntiVirus project.
   
7. Forum Systems to Support Open Source Clam Antivirus
   Forum Systems announced its support for Clam Antivirus, a leading Open Source antivirus toolkit. Forum XWall Web Services Firewall now integrates and extends the Clam Antivirus scanning engine to prevent the propagation of virus, worms, Trojans and other malicious software that finds its way into XML and SOAP documents, the emerging standards for business communications. Clam AntiVirus is an open source content scanning engine that is widely adopted for its high performance virus database and comprehensive malware signature database. The new Open Source-based module is available at no extra fee to Forum XWall customers. Recent industry examples with financial companies such as CardSystems Solutions, ChoicePoint, Bank of America and Wachovia point to lost, misplaced or stolen data that could potentially affect millions of customers. A virus embedded in XML messages and documents is another avenue by which malicious users are able to corrupt workflows, steal data and stall enterprise productivity.
   
8. Anti-Virus Vendors Disagree on Open Source
   Days after anti-virus software provider McAfee issued a special report on the dangers of the open source method when it comes to combating malware, competitor Trend Micro is stumping for the other side of the argument, pointing out that it's the "openness" of open source that makes malware easier to find - and find quickly. Trend Micro's CTO is cited here for the proposition that security loopholes are fixed faster and malware is combated more efficiently because open source developers address security issues as they happen rather than waiting for the next patch cycle to come around, as is common in proprietary software companies. An SMB usually has fewer dollars to spend and less pull with vendors than a large enterprise, which could result in less than optimal anti-malware. Clam AntiVirus, profiled here, is an open source alternative developed for UNIX systems that is gaining respect in the enterprise arena.
   
9. Forum Systems to Support Open Source Clam Antivirus
   Forum Systems, the leader in Web services security for threat protection and trust management, announced today its support for Clam Antivirus (http://www.clamav.net/), the leading Open Source antivirus toolkit. Forum XWall Web Services Firewall now integrates and extends the Clam Antivirus scanning engine to prevent the propagation of virus, worms, Trojans and other malicious software that finds its way into XML and SOAP documents, the emerging standards for business communications. Clam AntiVirus is an open source content scanning engine that is widely adopted for its high performance virus database and comprehensive malware signature database. The new Open Source-based module is available at no extra fee to Forum XWall customers. Recent industry examples with financial companies such as CardSystems Solutions, ChoicePoint, Bank of America and Wachovia point to lost, misplaced or stolen data that could potentially affect millions of customers. A virus embedded in XML messages and documents is another avenue by which malicious users are able to corrupt workflows, steal data and stall enterprise productivity.
   

Open Source web mail

1. Open Web Mail Project
   Open WebMail is a webmail system based on the Neomail version 1.14 from Ernie Miller. Open WebMail is designed to manage very large mail folder files in a memory efficient way. It also provides a range of features to help users migrate smoothly from Microsoft Outlook to Open WebMail.Open WebMail project is an open source effort made possible thanks to volunteer contributions by hundreds of developers around the world. But volunteers can't do everything: it takes money to host our server and coordinate the work done by volunteer contributors.
   Please make a donation if you enjoy using our software and believe in the importance of what the Open WebMail project is working to accomplish.
   
2. Open Source Web Mail Clients in Java
   WebMail is a www-frontend to IMAP/POP3 mailboxes. You can compare it to the systems Hotmail, YahooMail etc use. It allows a user to access his mailbox via the world wide web and do most things other mail programs allow to do, even if he is not sitting on his own personal computer or corporate LAN. Primarily jwma is a WebMail implementation in Java, enabling the user to access, manage and compose email using a standard web browser. GatorMail is a servlet-based Webmail built on the Struts framework. It was originally developed to meet the needs of the University of Florida. Efficient interaction with the mail store along with a low support overhead are the goals of the project.
   
3. OpenSource ASP.NET webmail application written in C#
   SharpWebMail is an ASP.NET webmail application that is written in C#. It uses a POP3 or IMAP servers as the mailstore and sends mail through a SMTP server. It is very simple to configure (only a few settings in the web.config file). You can compose HTML messages, search your inbox, read complex mime messages, have multiple address books and much more. Features:
   * Very simple to configure (only a few settings in web.config).
   * Multiple POP3 and IMAP servers can be configured to read mail from. The selection of the server is based in login (username) information or (optionally) by the user.
   * Tries to minimize the queries to the server caching message info (only headers).
   * Authentication is handled by your email server (no additional databases needed).
   * Sends mail through a SMTP server (chosen from the login information of your users). Including support for SMTP AUTH.
   
4. Open Source AJAX Webmail
   It seems AJAX webmail is all the craze. Right on the heels of both Microsoft and Yahoo launching beta versions of their new AJAX webmail clients, an Open Source startup RoundCube has released an alpha of a GPLed AJAX webmail client. While there are still many features missing (like search!), the demo they have is completely cross-browser compliant and overall very impressive.RoundCube Webmail is a browser-based multilingual IMAP client with an application-like user interface. It provides full functionality you expect from an e-mail client, including MIME support, address book, folder manipulation and message filters. RoundCube Webmail is written in PHP and requires the MySQL database. The user interface is fully skinnable using XHTML and CSS 2.
   
   
5. Open-source Web software
   The tech giant announced a partnership with Zend Technologies to create a bundle called Zend Core, which includes IBM's Cloudscape-embedded database and Zend's PHP development tools. Zend sells tools built on the open-source edition of PHP and offers related services. The two companies intend to devote programmers to make PHP work better with corporate databases and Web services protocols. IBM also plans to establish an area dedicated to PHP on its developer Web site, which will include technical resources such as white papers. Zend Core will be available as a free download in the second half of the year. PHP, originally known as Personal Home Page, is a widely used scripting language for generating Web pages. Unlike compiled languages such as Java or C, scripting languages like PHP are easier to learn. They are generally used for simpler tasks, rather than for complex number-crunching jobs.
   
6. The Open Webmail Help Tutorials
   Open Webmail is a free, open source project that allows people to check their e-mail -- from anywhere in the world! You can use Open Webmail to simply check your e-mail while you are on the road, or as a complete replacement to your offline e-mail client! Open Webmail can also help you manage your daily activities with its easy-to-use calendar tools. In this tutorial, you'll find examples, diagrams, and definitions, all to help you get the most out of Open Webmail. This tutorial has been put in place to give you the best possible experience with Open Webmail, and to help you use it to its full potential. If you are new to Open Webmail, it is recommended that you start from the first tutorial, and read them in the order that they are in. You can use the links on the bottom of each page to get to the next tutorial, instead of having to refer back to the index each time.
   
7. New Web Mail: More Polished, Powerful
   Microsoft and Yahoo are poised to make Web-based e-mail more powerful than ever with updates that bring a desktop-style interface to their respective Web mail offerings. We tested betas (currently invitation-only) of Windows Live Mail and Yahoo Mail, and also looked at an open-source newcomer called Zimbra. All three apps use an increasingly popular programming technique called Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) to improve on standard Web mail and even Google's Gmail. As Ajax applications, the mail clients we tested can preload information and update their displays on the fly. So when you open up an e-mail message, you'll see it immediately, rather than having to wait for it to download. And when you delete a message, the application can update instantly, even though the delete request is still being processed in the background.
   
8. Zimbra: More Than Just Web Mail
   AJAX is growing in popularity as a powerful JavaScript-based mechanism for client-server communication and the creation of dynamic, interactive, browser-based Web applications. Zimbra is a new groupware platform that centers around a robust AJAX-based Web client that has features missing in some desktop groupware applications. This article provides a brief overview of Zimbra. I have been trawling the Internet looking for robust, practical, effective examples of AJAX in action. Recently I came across Zimbra, which provides an intriguing example of what can be achieved with AJAX as well as an example of the type of sophisticated application which can be built through corporate open source development. Zimbra is a complete, collaborative groupware platform available in its base form as an open source product. One of its unique features is an AJAX-based web mail front-end designed to be the primary point of access for Zimbra users.
   
9. Open source web 2.0 webmail
   With the advent of gmail, and yahoo's new webmail client based on oddpost we've seen the creation of second generation webmail. This is good because the existing solutions suck. But as any good freedom loving hacker might ask, kellan wants to know where are the free / open source alternatives? Most of the options such as squirrl mail and IMP are functional but they feel years out of date in-comparison to gmail and oddpost. Well now there appears to be a viable alternative in zimbra (via ajaxian). It's licensed under a modified version of the MPL. I wonder if folks like riseup and resist.ca will try it out and offer it to their users. To me radical activist email services need to start adopting more advanced tools to compete with the big boys such as yahoo and gmail. I suppose hotmail will be coming out with a big revision at some point as well.
   
10. Open source Web mail Server
    The software can be used as a WebMail interface to an existing mailserver, a complete Email Server platform, or an Exchange replacement.
    Seamlessly unifying messaging components, @Mail simplifies migration from outdated legacy systems. Filtering out the white noise of growing open-source options, @Mail is a reliable and complete messaging platform that includes full source code for complete control. Features Include
    * Group Calendar / Scheduling
    * WebMail Frontend
    * Email Server Backend (optional)
    * POP3 & IMAP4 Server (optional)
    * MySQL Database Backend
    * Unlimited AntiVirus Scanning (optional)
    * Web-based Administration (includes Branding, User Account Management, Security Settings, Mass Mailing, SMTP/POP3/IMAP4 daemon control, and much more)
    
11. Free open-source SMTP/POP3 email for Windows
    Many people who use Windows Small Business Server (SBS) 2003 are dismayed by the lack of a SMTP/POP3 server in the standard edition. If they want full email functionality, they have to install Exchange Server, which is a lot more than many shops need if they're managing just a few basic mailboxes. I've looked at some simple free/open-source SMTP/POP3 solutions for Windows in the past. Among them was XMail, but I became very discouraged after working with it, because it was difficult to configure and manage. A much better, more polished and Windows-specific implementation of a no-cost email server is hMailServer 4.2. In addition to being free and open-source, it's easy to set up and work with, and presents users with a GUI-based manager (as opposed to XMail's plethora of configuration files).
    
12. Open Source E-mail Security
    In this book you'll learn the technology underlying secure e-mail systems, from the protocols involved to the open source software packages used to implement e-mail security. This book explains the secure MIME (S/MIME) protocol and how it is used to protect data transmitted across the Internet. It also explains the concepts crucial to stopping spam messages using the three most popular open source mail packages--sendmail, qmail, and postfix. It presents detailed configurations showing how to avoid accepting messages from known open relays and how to filter known spam messages. Advanced security topics are also covered, such as how to install and implement virus scanning software on the mail server, how to use SMTP authentication software, and how to use the SSL protocol to secure POP, IMAP, and WebMail servers.
    
13. Open Source Email Marketing Solution
    The specialist for direct digital and dialog marketing, presents the world's first professional open source email marketing solution. The new software OpenEMM will be available as a free download in both German and English as from 13th July at www.openemm.org, providing a range of services similar to those in AGNITAS's basic conventional email marketing platform version. OpenEMM runs on the Linux operating system. Open source is the business model of the future. Our aim is to set the worldwide open source standard for email marketing software with OpenEMM. Our seven years' experience in software development, internet technology and direct marketing will stand us in good stead here." AGNITAS's OpenEMM will be available as from 13th July to all companies that want to conduct professional email marketing on an open source basis. The open source version of the E-Marketing Manager can be used to compile, implement, manage and evaluate complex user-friendly email marketing campaigns.

Open Source Outlook

1. Open Source Outlook Sync Tool
   Calendaring and scheduling are becoming the things of open standards, web services, and p2p ad-hoc networks, however Outlook users are still locked into their propietary, vertically locked down world; we need an open source solution for extracting information from Outlook as the first step to an open Outlook sync platform. Calendar has left the Ivory Tower and is flourishing in the wild. Interesting calendar/scheduling apps are: popping up on the desktop (Mozilla calendar, Evolution), on the Web (Kronolith), new exciting projects are on the way (Reefknot, Chandler), and a future of calendars that chatter among themselves, adapt, and follow you from desktop, to device, to web, are within grasp. Apple has built a Sync framework as a core freature of its operating system (and promised support for the SyncML standard), Multisync (and related projects) are promising similiar exciting possibilities for Linux.
   
2. The Open-Source Outlook Connector Project
   The "Open Connector" Project aims to develop extensions for Microsoft Outlook® email and groupware client. These open-source extensions, or add-ins, allow Microsoft Outlook's full functionality with email and calendar servers; including groupware servers other than Microsoft Exchange®. If you are familiar with MAPI service providers, or just MAPI in general and would like to help, please join the otlkcon-devel mailing list. Alternatively, you can consider Donating to the Open Source Outlook Connector project to help offset the cost of developer time. Develop a MAPI default message store extension that also parses MAPI calendar properties. To develop corresponding MAPI service providers that function as MAPI data stores and sources.
   
3. What Open Source Outlook Could Mean
   Over the weekend CNet ran a story indicating the Mozilla Foundation hopes to add calendaring functions to its Thunderbird e-mail client (right), turning an open source Outlook Express clone into something more like Microsoft Outlook. What follows is pure speculation, but this could make Firefox the big story of 2005, and beyond. For one thing, it would mean you could create applications that integrate that calendar functionality with other things, without first asking Microsoft's permission. For instance, you could integrate calendaring and e-mail functionality into a system you could access with a cell phone. Then you might integrate that calendar with, say, GPS and mapping data.Suddenly you have an enterprise application that can keep your mobile staff up-to-date, and give them the directions they need to stay on top of business. And, of course, you can also now build applications on browsers and basic e-mail functions without going "mother may I" with Microsoft. You simply fork" from Thunderbird or Firefox, maintaining your own copy of the code base and hosting the additions on the same open source basis.
   
4. Open source Outlook
   IT MANAGERS mulling over the pros and cons of replacing Microsoft Windows with Linux on the desktop have to consider a number of obstacles, but if we had to point to one deal-breaker, it would be the lack of office productivity applications that can easily replace Microsoft Office. Most of the current crop of alternatives, whether from Applix, Corel, or Sun, are still struggling to catch up on the features of Office 97. But these efforts have focused mainly on creating work-alikes for Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, ignoring the need for a Linux collaboration and mail client that can stand in for Outlook. Linux is going to succeed on the desktop, it will have to play with proprietary collaboration and messaging tools such as Microsoft Exchange. Although it's easy to find Linux alternatives to Outlook's local functions such as e-mail and calendaring, interfacing with servers running Microsoft Exchange is another thing entirely.
   
5. The Linux And Open Source Outlook
   Opinions on the merits of Linux fall into two extreme camps: it's the way forward for software development, or it's an anarchic movement of bearded developers. What’s the truth?’ The Linux and Open Source Outlook: Making Linux a strategic fit analyses what’s going on in Linux and open source software at the moment and answers questions such as whether open source will ever be a viable alternative to proprietary software and if so, when? The report also investigates hot issues such as why the increased availability of development tools has made Linux a major development platform - but not yet an enterprise platform. Keep one step ahead of competition by distinguishing which Linux distribution is best for your company and discover the business benefits of using open source software - on the server, for the database and on the desktop.
   
6. Open-Source Outlook-Like Calendar Control for ASP. NET
   This unique calendar WebDailyCalendar will give you maximum functionality with a minimum of requirements. A calendar was designed to be compatible with multiple browsers. Drag&Drop and Edit-In-Place are supported. Using JavaScript allows to significantly reduce HTML code size sent to a browser, allowing a calendar to be used on networks with a limited bandwidth. A capability to define view and contents of a calendar in detail was combined with ease of programming and usage of ASP.NET 2.0 in the latest Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 (required!). A page user will notice similarities with Microsoft Outlook and Web Outlook. This will make using a calendar easier. Calendar Go Bundle allows you to plan your appointments and browse them in various ways. A single line of code embeds a fully functional calendar or resource scheduler (Gantt diagram) in your application saving you hundreds hours' worth of coding. Calendar Go Bundle allows you to programatically control almost every aspect of your calendar's appearance and Gantt's diagram.
   
7. 2006 Outlook: Open source
   A convergence of trends epitomized by Google and the amazing speed at which it delivers new features will cause vendors and enterprises to change the way they build software. The new approach will be open-beta development with community participation and frequent new releases. Essentially, we'll use software while it's being developed. This trend plus code reusability will change commercial software development. Vendors that don't leverage these tactics will become irrelevant. Users will also demand that commercial software take on a more service-oriented approach so they can mix and match. As a result, the industry will begin to shed its not-invented-here bias and truly reform its approach to software. This will cause shifts in the cost structure of the business and eventually to changes in the power structure.
   
8. Oracle Open-Source Outlook Alternative
   Oracle and the Mozilla Foundation are keeping a joint venture under wraps, leading to speculation that the database giant may by planning to release an open-source product. The Mozilla Foundation revealed in February at the Free and Open Source Developers' European Meeting (FOSDEM) that the database giant had hired three people to work on Mozilla Lightning. This project, which aims to integrate Mesilla's calendar application, Sunbird, with its e-mail application, Thunderbird, is believed to be key to cracking the market dominance of Microsoft Outlook. With Oracle reluctant to talk about its work with Mozilla, industry watchers have been left to speculate on whether Oracle plans to follow Novell's lead in releasing an open-source collaboration product.
   
   
9. Lotus founder preps open source Outlook alternative
   Mitch Kapor, co-founder of Lotus Development and a pioneer of personal computer software, thinks so. He is heading up a project to build a free, open-source equivalent of Microsoft Outlook, the set of email, calendar and contacts applications that comes with Microsoft's pervasive Office suite. The organisation's "personal information manager" software will have many of the same features as Microsoft Outlook, with an emphasis on tools that allow people to work collaboratively in groups and share information, said Kapor, who is funding the project with $5m (£3m) from his own pocket. The software will incorporate Jabber, an open-source instant messaging system, as well as an easy-to-use email encryption system that Kapor's organisation is developing, he said. Kapor is credited with designing Lotus 1-2-3, a spreadsheet program that helped drive the personal computer revolution in the 1980s. IBM purchased Lotus in 1995.
   
10. Outlook for an Open Source version from Zimbra
    Maybe it’s the name or maybe we use Outlook/Exchange so much in our corporate lives that contemplating a major change like this is just too much. But the folks at Zimbra are launching a whole new Outlook email/address book/calendaring program that is built in Ajax and actually looks pretty slick. It’s also free. The Zimbra Collaboration Suite provides support for email, contacts, and group calendaring, and consists of a server and client. The Zimbra Server supports existing desktop and wireless personal information management (PIM) clients via standard protocols like POP, IMAP, and iCalendar: for example, Outlook, Thunderbird/Sunbird, Apple Mail/iCal, Evolution, Eudora, and Wireless IMAP.
    
11. Kapor's Open-Source PIM To Take On Outlook
    The designer of the Lotus 1-2-3 software database has decided to develop an open-source, serverless personal-information manager (PIM) that will take on Microsoft's Outlook service. Mitch Kapor, who founded Lotus Development Corp. before it was purchased by IBM, said he and a small development team are working on the framework for the PIM project. Kapor's team is working under the auspices of the Open Source Applications Foundation, which includes John Anderson and Andy Hertzfeld, one of the original team which designed Apple's Macintosh. The OSAF mission is to "create and gain wide adoption of open source application software of uncompromising quality. The new PIM is a "new take" on the traditional PIM, designed to email, appointments, contacts and tasks and exchange information with others in the style of Lotus Agenda, a DOS product which Kapor developed.