Sun Microsystems Completes Solaris International Security Certification Process; Next Generation of Trusted Solaris Secure Operating System Released

Business Wire, Dec 12, 1995

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 12, 1995--Sun Microsystems, Inc., announced today that international software security evaluation and certification processes for its secure operating systems -- the Solaris(TM) 2.4 Basic Security Module (BSM) environment on Sun(TM) SPARC(TM) and Intel computers and the Trusted Solaris(TM) 1.2 environment on SPARC computers -- have been completed.

These are the first Sun secure operating environments to receive certification from the U.K. Information Technology Security Evaluation and Certification (U.K. ITSEC) board. While some of Sun's competitors have received certification for single-system environments, Sun is the first to receive certification for a networked environment.

ITSEC certification is accepted in Europe, Canada and Australia. Sun's Solaris 2.4 environment was evaluated successfully to Level E2/F-C2, while Trusted Solaris 1.2 achieved the higher-level E3/F-B1. Under ITSEC, products can be evaluated from level E1 up to level E6. Level E3 is normally accepted as best commercial practice. E2/F-C2 equates with C2 in the U.S. TCSEC/Orange Book (i.e. with Discretionary Access Control) and E3/FB-1 equates to B1 (i.e. with Mandatory Access Control).

"ITSEC certification for Solaris 2.4 and Trusted Solaris 1.2 products demonstrates to government and commercial customers, developers and system integrators around the world our strong commitment to a secure operating environment," said John Marselle, president of Sun Microsystems Federal, Inc., Sun's worldwide government business unit. "Sun's presence in the international government marketplace has been growing, and this positions us well as we compete for future opportunities."

New Version of Trusted Solaris

Sun also announced today that it is developing Trusted Solaris 2.5, the follow-on version to Trusted Solaris 1.2. This version is based on the recently introduced Solaris 2.5 operating system and incorporates benefits such as full multiprocessing and multithreading support and a more robust environment that enhances performance. Sun plans to offer this newer version for certification.

These secure operating environments are all based on Solaris, the world's number-one UNIX(R) operating system. Many government users seeking a widely installed, secure UNIX environment have chosen Sun's products. For example, Wing Commander R.J. Wallis, project manager for the logistics support systems with the Royal Air Force, said, "Trusted Solaris is critical to the development of the Logistic Support System for the RAF, which will provide secure computing to some 250 initial users in four countries in 1996. Sun has worked extremely hard over the last year to meet the challenging requirements of evaluation and our project timetable. We are delighted with their success and support."

The Trusted Solaris environment offers users a highly secure operating system with distributed client-server computing, along with the ease of use, power and system management available from Sun's commercial products. Information can be shared throughout the entire enterprise with strict security maintained.

Sun supplies government customers with distributed computing technologies, products and services. Sun's innovative network computing solutions use "open" (non-proprietary) technologies and include networked workstations and servers, operating systems software and other value-added technologies. Sun systems are used by government agencies all over the world and at all levels for many demanding tasks ranging from command and control, law enforcement, land management, geographic information systems, traffic monitoring, and tax form processing to delivering social services.

With annual revenues of $6 billion, Sun Microsystems, Inc. provides solutions that enable customers to build and maintain open network computing environments. Widely recognized as a proponent of open standards, the company is involved in the design, manufacture and sale of products, technologies and services for commercial and technical computing. Sun's SPARC(TM) workstations, multiprocessing servers, SPARC microprocessors, Solaris(TM) operating software and ISO-certified service organization each rank No. 1 in the UNIX(R)industry. Founded in 1982, Sun is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., and employs more than 14,000 people worldwide. -0-

NOTE TO EDITORS: Sun, the Sun logo, Sun Microsystems, Solaris and Trusted Solaris are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All SPARC trademarks are under license and are trademarks of SPARC International, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based on an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, licensed through X/Open Company, Ltd. All other product or service names mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective owners.

Press announcements and other information about Sun Microsystems are available on the Internet via the World Wide Web using a tool such as Netscape or NCSA Mosaic. Type http://www.sun.com at the URL prompt.