HERNDON, Va., RALEIGH, NC & ARMONK, NY -– Trusted Computer Solutions, Inc. (TCS), a leading supplier of information sharing technologies to the Department of Defense, the intelligence community and commercial industry, together with Red Hat, the world's leading provider of open source solutions to the enterprise, and IBM, today announced that Red Hat Enterprise Linux is in Common Criteria evaluation on a broad range of IBM eServer systems.

This evaluation will mean that the Red Hat Enterprise Linux meets government security standards for assured information sharing within and across government agencies.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux v.5 officially entered The National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP) approved Common Criteria Evaluation & Validation Scheme (CCEVS) this month to bring a new level of security and assurance to Linux. This operating platform contains kernel and Security Enhanced Linux (SELinux) policy enhancements, developed by IBM, Red Hat, TCS and the community. TCS security enhancements augment the security features of the National Security Agency’s SELinux.

The joint effort enables high-value, proven, cross-domain security applications — such as TCS SecureOffice® NetTop® and NetTop2 - Thin Client, which allow users access to multiple security levels on a single computer — to run on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

“For years our customers have been clamoring for the look, feel, flexibility, and functionality of today’s commercial software,” said Susan Alexander, chief of information assurance research at the NSA. “With NetTop, based on SELinux, they can get just such an environment...without compromising on security."

Prior to the general availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux v.5 and in compliance with NSTISSP No. 11 National Policy, government agencies can now acquire and implement TCS cross-domain security applications based on a Linux trusted operating system platform. Red Hat Enterprise Linux v.5 will be the first open source distribution with these capabilities.

IBM is sponsoring the certification of Red Hat Enterprise Linux v.5 and has entered the CCEVS at Evaluation Assurance Level 4 (EAL4) and will include the security functionality defined in three protection profiles recognized by the Common Criteria: Labeled Security Protection Profile (LSPP), Controlled Access Protection Profile (CAPP), and Role-Based Access Control Protection Profile (RBAC). These profiles support the requirements of Director of Central Intelligence Directive (DCID) 6/3 at Protection Level 4, which specifies security intelligence-related information and systems measures, including those necessary for Top Secret and Below Interoperability (TSABI).

This CCEVS evaluation means Red Hat Enterprise Linux will reach a level of security previously achieved by only a handful of trusted operating systems. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is now positioned to provide best-of-breed security capabilities for commercial operating systems, offering the government, as well as businesses, unprecedented choice for security applications. The benefits included broader hardware platform choice, reduced cost and IT complexity, improved access to data for decision making and improved government collaboration and intelligence sharing.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux v.5 is anticipated to be in general availability from Red Hat in late 2006. However, in compliance with NSTISSP No. 11 National Policy, the functionality is available today from TCS as a component of their commercial products.

"Red Hat Enterprise Linux will join an exclusive community of trusted operating systems that have achieved this level of security," said Ed Hammersla, chief operating officer at TCS. "The powerful collaboration between IBM, Red Hat, NSA and TCS is going to shake things up, and means our customers have a safe open source alternative to run our SecureOffice suite of application software. "

“IBM is joining with Red Hat and TCS to enhance its offerings to the government market with solutions that support both open standards and government security standards,” said Anne Altman, IBM’s managing director of US Federal. “This announcement represents another example of IBM’s ongoing commitment to supplying solutions to the government market, and its commitment to expanding the adoption of Linux throughout government and government agencies. ”

“In a relatively short period of time Linux has come to be known as a standard, secure computing platform,” said Brian Stevens, vice president of Operating Systems Development at Red Hat. “This new level of certification is a testament to the power of collaboration. IBM, TCS, the NSA, Red Hat and the community have worked together to bring the Linux platform forward with rapid innovation in the area of security. This collaboration and evaluation effort will make Red Hat Enterprise Linux the most secure open source operating system platform available. ”

IBM is working with Red Hat to sponsor the certification of Red Hat Enterprise Linux v.5 on multiple platforms to maximize choice and value for customers. Red Hat Enterprise Linux v.5 will be evaluated on IBM server brands, including: xSeries, pSeries, zSeries and BladeCenter. IBM’s server product line offers customers industry-leading performance together with application flexibility, solution choice, and outstanding scalability, reliability and security. IBM’s Linux Technology center is working with the open source community and contributing code to this effort. IBM selected atsec information security, a vendor-independent consulting company in the business of IT security, as the certification lab for this effort.

Trusted Computer
28.09.2005