[FYI] NSA Releases High Security Version Of Linux

["jan.meyer" <jmeyer@fh-potsdam.de>]

http://slashdot.org/articles/00/12/22/0157229.shtml

tytso writes: "I recently attended a DARPA workshop which 
focused on high security open source operating systems". 
[...]

While I was at this workshop, I met some folks from the NSA 
and they told me about a really neat project that they've 
been working on, called Security-enhanced Linux. 
http://www.nsa.gov/selinux/
[...]

The NSA folks just recently got permission to make their 
stuff available on the Web. It's just a proof of concept, 
and no doubt a lot of changes will need to made before people
will accept integrating it into the kernel, but they have 
released a working system (both kernel and userspace patches
--- RPM's aren't quite ready yet) based on Linux 2.2 and 
RedHat 6.1. So it's definitely worth a look, and in fact some 
folks with specialized needs might find it useful, even 
though it's a prototype.

Of course, the source code is all there, and we're encouraged
to look at and audit the code. So paranoiacs who think that 
the NSA is trying to infiltrate trap doors into the Linux 
kernels needn't worry. (Besides, it's a different part of the
government who's interested in spying on U.S. citizens, and 
it's much more efficient for them to break into your house, 
and insert a wiretapping device between your computer and 
your keyboard as part of a black bag job. :-)

[...]