Saturday, March 26, 2011

Happy 40th Birthday, Computer Virus... NOT...

The Creeper virus made its debut in 1971. The Creeper looked for a machine on the network, transfered to it, then displayed the message “I’m the creeper, catch me if you can!” and then starts over, thereby hoping from system to system. It was a pure proof of concept that tied the roots of computer viruses to those of the Internet.

Since then, the number of malware instances boomed from 1,300 in 1990, to 50,000 in 2000, to over 200 million in 2010. Besides sheer quantity, viruses, which were originally used as academic proof of concepts, quickly turned into geek pranks, then evolved into cyber-criminal tools. By 2005, the virus scene had been monetized, and virtually all viruses were developed with the sole purpose of making money... More

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Open Source Tools That Can Replace Popular Security Software.

1) ASSP: (short for "Anti-Spam SMTP Proxy") humbly calls itself "the absolute best SPAM fighting weapon that the world has ever known!" It works with most SMTP servers to stop spam and scan for viruses (using ClamAV). Operating System: OS Independent.

2) MailScanner: Used by more than 100,000 sites, MailScanner leverages Apache's SpamAssassin project and ClamAV to provide anti-spam and anti-virus capabilities. It's designed to sit on corporate mail gateways or ISP servers to protect end users from threats. Operating System: OS Independent.

3) SpamAssassin: This Apache project declares itself "the powerful #1 open-source spam filter." It uses a variety of different techniques, including header and text analysis, Bayesian filtering, DNS blocklists, and collaborative filtering databases, to filter out bulk e-mail at the mail server level. Operating System: primarily Linux and OS X, although Windows versions are available. More

Tuesday, March 01, 2011

The Google Apps Marketplace...

The Google Apps Marketplace offers products and services designed for Google users, including installable apps that integrate directly with Google Apps. Installable apps are easy to use because they include single sign-on, Google's universal navigation, and some even include features that integrate with your domain's data. More