ProtonVPN adopts GPLv3, Mozilla Thunderbird gets new home, and more news

In this edition of our open source news roundup, we take a look ProtonVPN apps going open, Mozilla Thunderbird's new home, and more!

ProtonVPN apps go open source

People wanting to use the internet securely and privately do the deed using a Virtual Private Network (VPN). But which VPNs can you really trust? The company behind the popular ProtonVPN service made a big move to gain that trust by releasing the source code for all its apps.

By making its apps open source, ProtonVPN is giving security experts the chance to "inspect its encryption implementations and how the company handles user data, giving users confidence that the company is adhering to its strict privacy policy." According to an article at TechRadar, ProtonVPN also engaged "security firm SEC Consult on a full security audit that was able to verify the security of the company's software."

You can find the source code for the apps on GitHub and links to the audit reports in this blog post.

Mozilla Thunderbird gets a new home

What a difference a few years makes. When the Mozilla Foundation announced in 2015 that it was considering spinning off the Thunderbird email client, the software's adherents feared the worst. Since then, Thunderbird has persisted but its fate has also been up in the air. That's changed with the formation of MZLA Technologies Corporation.

MZLA Technologies is "a new wholly owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation" that's the new home of the Thunderbird project. The move to the new corporation means that development will continue on the software and that move "won’t have an impact on Thunderbird’s day-to-day running." According to Thunderbird's Phillip Kewisch, shifting the project to MZLA Technologies enables it to "explore offering our users products and services that were not possible under the Mozilla Foundation."

Encrypting the Internet of Things

The so-called Internet of Things (IoT) has promised so much. That promise has been lost under the weight of the often paper-thin security of IoT devices. Teserakt, a Swiss security firm, is trying turn that around with the release of E4, a "cryptographic implant that IoT manufacturers can integrate into their servers."

Teserakt's CEO Jean-Philippe Aumasson said that E4 came about because there are "so many machines and entities that do not have the need to view or modify (data from IoT devices), so they shouldn’t have access to it." E4 provides end-to-end encryption of data which bolsters "defenses for information in transit and offers protection against data interception and manipulation."

If you're interesting taking a peek at E4, you can do that in Teserakt's GitHub repository.

In other news

• Scientists working with Google just published the most detailed brain scans ever created
• AWS JPL open source rover challenge open to competitors
• Intel joins CHIPS Alliance, contributes advanced interface bus
• Why UK leaders need open technology for the disrupted future
• Microsoft open sources code analysis tool

Thanks, as always, to Opensource.com staff members and moderators for their help this week. Make sure to check out our event calendar, to see what's happening next week in open source.