With concern over the security of commercial Unix installations mounting following the series of security breaches and virus scares recently, AT&T is making its multi-level security extensions to Unix available to the general marketplace for the first time. System V/MLS has previously been available only to the US Government. Commercial customers share the government’s concern about safeguarding sensitive information said Unix Software Operation president Larry Dooling, who claimed that the product would give customers control to implement security classifications for individual projects and administer secure systems without alienating the users. AT&T has submitted System V/MLS to the National Computer Security Center for evaluation, and is hoping that the thing will get a B1 security level rating based on the Department of Defense Orange Book guidelines.
