[ Thanks to Don
Marti for this link. ]
“In a dramatic US military endorsement of free software’s
security strengths, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA) is beginning a research program to develop future
high-security information technology systems based on today’s
open-source operating systems. The agency is currently seeking
proposals from researchers for the initial $10 million, two-year
phase of the five-year program. The research will be a step toward
the Defense Department’s ‘Joint Vision 2010’ and ‘Joint Vision
2020’ technology plans, which emphasize information dominance over
the enemy for ‘total battlespace awareness.’
“According to the solicitation for proposals on DARPA’s web
site, ‘These trusted operating system capabilities will be created
by engaging the Open Source development community in the
development of security functionality for existing open-source
operating systems.’ In other words, military security development
is coming soon to your friendly neighborhood CVS server, and, by
the way, free software licenses mean that you won’t have to wait,
or negotiate technology transfer red tape, to benefit from
spinoffs….”
“NSA already has a program to develop a Security Enhanced Linux,
based on kernel version 2.2.12, that implements some advanced
security concepts including role-based access control.”