Trusted systems expert Addamax Corp has extended its B1 level Unix security extension kit with a new networking product, B 1st Net 1.0, announced earlier this month. The Champaign, Illinois based company, which recently announced that it was working with ICL on the UK Ministry of Defence CHOTS Corporate Headquarters Office Technology System contract claims that the new product is a logical extension of its activities, providing multi-level security for networking between Unix systems. Both products are designed for hardware manufacturers and integrators attempting to meet the National Security Center’s Orange Book requirements for B1 and C2 class trusted systems. Addamax vice-president Gary Grossman said that Addamax had planned for secure networking since day one, so existing users can have secure networking without any re-engineering. While standard Unix networking interfaces are sufficient for normal applications, Addamax has built on the de facto TCP/IP protocol set so that it can take advantage of multi-level file and database servers, in the context of a network security architecture based on the ISO security model. It is therefore applicable to any layered protocol set, such as the Open Systems Interconnection and Government OSI Protocol standards, as well as proprietary protocol stacks including DECNet and XNS. Pre-release versions of B 1st-Net are currently running on DEC, ICL and other undisclosed hardware. The plan is to integrate the product with Digital Communications Inc’s 10Net and Verix Corp’s trusted network products to provide demonstration systems – and one US systems integrator, Centel Federal Systems, says it will be working on integrating 10Net and B 1st-Net to sell to its Defense and Civilian Agency customers. Addamax says it has also donated current interface definitions to the IEEE Posix committee, the Open Software Foundation, and the Trusix Unix security standards efforts currently being worked on by AT&T Co, Amdahl Corp, Sun Microsystems Inc and the National Computer Security Centre.
