Security limits Linux in government

[InfoSec News <isn () C4I ORG>]

http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2000/0731/web-linux-08-02-00.asp

BY Bruce Tober, LinuxWorld
08/02/2000 RELATED LINKS

The biggest threat to Linux becoming the software of choice in
government circles is that there is no third-party verification,
certification or evaluation of it, Linux devotees were told last
month.

The operating system also fails to meet Common Criteria (CC)
requirements an international agreement and protocol regarding
security criteria according to Linda Walsh, a member of Silicon
Graphics Inc.s Trust Technology group. Walsh spoke at the U.K. Unix
User Group Linux 2000 Developers Conference held July 7-9 in London.

"Functionally, Linux lacks the ability to audit [all security-relevant
events] to meet the functional requirements of the Common Criteria
Controlled Access Protection Profile," Walsh said. Linux lacks
security procedures to specify which users are allowed to send or
receive information from others, she added.

"Governments require assurance and third-party evaluation of trusted
systems before they will consider them safe to store or process
government data," she said.

Nevertheless, France reportedly is close to passing a law making
open-source code specifically, Linux obligatory for applications used
by the governments computer systems.

Walsh speculated on the U.S. governments wariness about Microsoft.
"The fact that [Windows] is closed source and [the government is] at
the mercy of such a large and dominant vendor such as Microsoft would
seem to be a national security risk," he said.

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