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Green Hills spins out military Integrity for masses

Anonymous Coward

I guess it depends 

Gates Halo

I guess it depends on what you mean by security, and the press release<<<<<<<<article doesn't really say. Yes an authentication layer can be added on top of WinNT, or a layer which claims to provide access controls, or a layer which claims to provide an audit log. And you can do these in an OS-independent way; indeed, stuff like CDSA aka Common Distributed Security Architecture has been doing much of this for some real OSes for a decade or more, but you almost certainly won't have heard of it (and it doesn't claim to be ready for niches like DO-178).

But as soon as anyone claims they put "a security layer" on top of Windows, it loses all credibility as a means of actually enforcing security in a meaningful way, because of the insecurity of the underlying OS.

Elrond Hubbard

Right 

Alert

>>The military has always had better security than we can get on our computers

Just ask Gary McKinnon

Anonymous Coward

@AC 

I thought it went UNDER windows, allowing you to control everything passing between the OS and the hadware?

Anonymous Coward

@Right 

there is a bit of a difference between the security systems on a fighter jet or nucler missile silo and some dodgy windows server running in a branch office managed by a ten year old.

Anonymous Coward

erm... 

The way I read it is that it's NOT putting a security layer on top of Windows - but putting Windows on top of a security layer. If that makes sense - for all intents and purposes, Windows just becomes a GUI playing in a sandbox and the underlying Integrity OS won't let that GUI play with the fundamentals.

Of course the weakest link, as far as commercial/home PCs are concerned will probably be the organic component sitting on a chair in front of the keyboard.

-----

"Integrity is for environments where you expect hostile, repeated attempts to breach security"

Hmmm, like the web? Especially for orgs like Spamhaus.

Anonymous Coward

I wonder if OpenBSD has been tested 

Paris Hilton

under the guidelines for EAL6+. hmm...must go and find out.

Paris because inquiring minds want to know.

Jason DePriest

Re: Anon Cow 

Linux

The EAL stuff seems to be for commercially available systems only.

You would need to search for a specific implementation of OpenBSD being sold on some sort of device.

(penguin because you don't have an icon for the BSD demon)

g00p

@AC @Right 

Stop

AC - to be fair tho - that was a pretty funny thing to say

I bet you're a bubble burster irl.

Pascal Monett

"The military has always had better security than we can get on our computers" 

Pity they've never actually used it.