International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM - news) and Linux (news - web sites) distributor SuSE said on Tuesday that they received the highest level of security evaluation used by governments when deciding to use software in their organizations.
Linux, running on IBM computers using Intel Corp.'s (Nasdaq:INTC - news) chips, received the Common Criteria certification, a global standard for security features and capabilities of information technology products, IBM and SuSE said. Up to now, few in the Linux community had sought the certification because of the time, cost and effort involved, said Anne Altman, who manages IBM's $1.6 billion business with the federal government. "As recently as three years ago Linux was not a household name," Altman told Reuters, "Today, Linux is growing at a tremendous clip with the federal government and we really aimed to deliver a robust security classification for Linux." The U.S. government and its various agencies, which use a variety of software, use the standards set out in the Common Criteria certification to determine the security of the products it adopts. IBM's Altman said the certification was a sign that Linux was maturing into a software standard that could be adopted more widely. IBM said that industry analysts are expecting the Linux market to grow from $2 billion to more than $5 billion in 2006.