Clam AntiVirus or ClamAV is a free anti-virus toolkit that detects and effectively removes viruses before they can infect a system or be passed on to others. It has a command line virus scanner, a database updater that pulls new virus definitions from the central server, and a daemon to run as a background service.

In order to scan incoming mail, ClamAV requires a mail filter, such as MailScanner. ClamAV is free and open source software, released under the GPL. It is available in most Linux distribution repositories, as well as BSD, Solaris, Mac OS X, and other Unix operating systems. There is also a separate organization that maintains a Windows version called ClamWin.

Answer: Many people assume that they have a security breach in their server if Google flags them. While this is sometimes true, it is often a much easier problem to fix. If you are running Microsoft Windows on your home computer or if you have dedicated server hosting multiple websites, you may have a virus attached to files on your website.

Any user with FTP access to your server is a potential weak link and could be responsible for unknowingly uploading a virus. Since you cannot possibly police each one of them and force them to keep their computers clean, the best you can do is install anti-virus software on your server. If you are using a shared hosting account, check with your provider and also make sure you have anti-virus software running on your home computer.

For Linux servers, ClamAV is the popular choice for virus scanning. Although it runs on Linux, its primary function is to find and quaranteen Windows viruses. It is free and open source software, available in most distribution repositories.

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McAfee’s annual survey revealed that Biel had surpassed Paris Hilton and Brad Pitt as the riskiest celebrity to search for. People looking for pictures, wallpapers, screensavers, and videos often encounter websites phishing schemes, spyware, and viruses. Nearly half of all websites claiming to have Jessica Biel screensavers are malicious.

“Cybercriminals are star watchers too—they latch onto popular celebrities to encourage the download of malicious software in disguise,” McAfee Avert Labs VP Jeff Green said in a statement.

Malware can be particularly dangerous because attackers often use someone’s computer to attack other computers or servers without their knowledge. Such computers can remain infected for long periods of time without any visible symptoms. They can also be used to steal private financial information from an unsuspecting user. While there is software that can scan your computer and warn you of potential dangers, the best defense is to only visit websites you trust.

Source: Ars Technica
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Most Linux enthusiasts will tell you that there are no significant Linux viruses and that Linux is immune to Windows viruses. They are right, and your system will most like be safe from any viruses. But when you are running a server, you must think about your clients as well. According to market share statistics, most of them will be running Windows. This means that, while your server might be immune, it is still capable of being a carrier.

ClamAv is probably the most well-known Linux virus application, and it is designed particularly with Windows viruses in mind. With the addition of a mail scanning tool, you can scan your email server for viruses that might otherwise end up in your clients’ email boxes or be distributed from their email accounts through your SMTP server. This will not only protect your clients but also help maintain your reputation as a safe, reliable server.

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Most notably, spam has increased by 5.1% since April. It now accounts for 90.4% of email. Where you live depends on what time of day you receive spam. American spam activity peaks between 9-10 AM, while Europeans get a steady spewing of unwanted email all day. Asians get their spam in the wee hours of the morning.

Interestingly, there’s been a trend for spammers not to write long emails, but just include a message title and link. If more spam is being sent out, at least no one is having War and Peace delivered to their inbox each day.

Spam originates in equal amounts from all parts of the globe, but most is sent out to coincide with American working hours. Over half of it comes from botnets, a collection of thousands of “zombie” computers compromised by malware. To botnets alone, codenamed Donbot and Rustock, account for 18.2% and 16.1% of spam respectively.

The report debunked the myth that malicious content is only found on newer, less reputable websites. Data collected earlier this month by Symantec reveals that 84.6% of domains hosting malware are over a year old. These are mostly social networking sites or hacked domains. Cyber criminals are targeting legitimate domains for their reputation.

The United Kingdom is the third most-spammed country, where 90.3% of email is spam. Hong Kong was number-one with 92.3%

On average, 1 in 317.8 emails contain a virus. The UK seems to get more viruses- 1 in 199.8 emails carry one. In the United States, the threat is more than 50% less ,with only 1 out of 473.4 emails being infected. Finally, 1 out of every 279.0 emails was found to play host to a phishing attack.

The report’s findings will be very useful to developers and IT professionals. If spam filter designers know that most spam goes out between 9-10 AM, for example, they can code their software to be extra vigilant during that time of the day. Because more established website are being attacked than ever before, webmasters need to pay more attention to security.

The full report can be downloaded here (PDF). The information was collected by observing live data feeds from 14 datacenters around the world. Billions of email messages and webpages were scanned.