German IT agency to release open source security suite
By
John Blau
,
IDG News Service
, 05/02/2006
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Germany's Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) will present several new open source-based desktop and security applications
on Wednesday at a local Linux event.
The applications include an e-mail encryption tool for Windows users, a security suite for the public and private sectors,
and desktop systems for public administrations, BSI said Tuesday.
The GNU Privacy Guard for Windows (gpg4win) application is based on the free software GnuPG, designed to enable data encryption and easy integration with other applications,
including Microsoft's Outlook 2003. The software, available for free under terms of the GNU General Public License, can be
used not only by public administrations and businesses but also by consumers.
BSI's open source security suite (BOSS) allows public and private sector organizations to centrally monitor the security of their entire IT networks. The application
is based largely on the open source scanner Nessus and the tool Security Local Auditing Daemon (SLAD), designed to perform
local security checks against GNU/Linux systems.
As part of the government-funded Experiment with Open Source Software (ERPOSS) project, which aims to make open source software more easy to install and use by public administrations, BSI and Credative
GmbH collaborated to make the ERPOSS4 desktop application. The application, based on the Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 operating system
and KDE 3.3 graphic interface, includes OpenOffice, KMail with integrated virus and spam protection and the Mozilla Firefox
browser, as well as a preconfigured personal firewall.
Most of the information about the BSI products is in German only, but the agency points out that because of the input from
international groups, some information is also available in English.
English-language information about BSI is available here.
The agency will present the open source applications at the LinuxTag conference and exhibition, which runs from May 3-6 in
Wiesbaden, Germany.
The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.
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