The Swedish defence department has selected AT&T’s System V/MLS as its new secure computing standard. Sweden first adpoted Unix System V as its standard operating system way back in 1984, and in 1987 picked a shortlist of hardware suppliers for its second buying phase, including Unisys Corp Sweden, Norsk Data AB and Diab Data AB – although the defence department also has systems from NCR Corp and Diab Data AB. System V/MLS multi-level secure Unix is currently in formal certification as a B1 computer system by the National Computer Security Center agency of the US Department of Defense, and is being provided to the US Government through AT&T’s recently-won AFCAC 251 contract. AT&T’s Federal Systems Division vice president Warren Corgan said he was looking forward to the Swedish civil administration including System V/MLS as an extension to its existing specification for Unix System V. MLS allows users with different security clearances to use the same computer, and provides an audit trail that records all data accesses on the computer. Software licences are provided through AT&T’s Unix Software Operation Europe, while technical support comes through AT&T’s Nordics AB division, in Stockholm.
