NOW READ THIS
("Security Advisory")
Submitted by: Bill Hickey
NCVA List Master
NRT-0445 NSA Releases New Version of Secure Linux:
NSA has released its own version of the open-source computer operating system LINUX, which
offers enhanced security for users. The new software was rolled out earlier this month to
an email list for users of LINUX - an operating system that many experts believe provides a
more secure alternative to the ubiquitous Microsoft WINDOWS. LINUX is open-source, which
means the core code is available to programmers to improve, as the NSA has done with its
latest version of the so-called Security-Enhanced LINUX, or SELinux. The version provides
what experts call Mandatory Access Control, which essentially limits the kind of instructions
that software packages and users can issue to the computer, helping guard against hackers
compromising it. MAC "confine(s) user programs and system servers to the minimum amount of
privilege they require to do their jobs," says the agency on its web site. The release was
first reported by Government Computer News. The NSA has been working on SELinux since 2000,
and it has been available to LINUX users since 2003.
(UPI 24MAR08)