Expanded Solaris Security

http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,80268,00.html?nas=SEC-80268

Sun Expands Availability of Solaris Security

By PATRICK THIBODEAU
APRIL 14, 2003

Content Type: Story
Source: Computerworld

San Francisco—Sun Microsystems Inc. said last week that it will offer
commercial 
customers a version of its Solaris operating system originally developed
for military and 
government intelligence use. Sun intends to include the technology in
its next version 
of Solaris, due in mid-2004.

The security technology, called Trusted Solaris, provides role-based
access control at 
the root, dividing or limiting root access by user. It also creates
audit trails, company 
officials said. The technology supports both Sparc and Intel-based
systems.

Although the commercial availability of Trusted Solaris isn't new, the
company hasn't 
marketed it broadly and interest has largely been limited to financial
services 
companies. Beginning this spring, Sun intends to market an offering that
includes 
firewalls and other access controls. Pricing will start at $999 for a
standard desktop 
edition.

Because Trusted Solaris provides access control at the root, it allows
companies to 
separate systems administration from operations, at the most fundamental
level of the 
operating system. "Just because you are the system administrator and you
have root 
access, I don't want to give you access to the payroll database," said
Jonathan 
Schwartz, executive vice president of Sun's software products group.