Of course, my take is just a little more paranoid.  I would only use
this OS on boxes that I was playing with, or learning some public
technology on.  NSA and other related agencies have been known to leave
backdoors (H/W & S/W) wherever they had a hold.  

Did they do it here?  i dunno, I don't program OS's.  Probably not, if
they left it open.  Someone would find it.  Is it a closed system?  I'll
stick with (insert your favorite distro here) RedHat.

Just my overinflated $.02

Nick


On Mon, 2002-01-07 at 21:36, chris albert wrote:
> Bill Walls wrote:
> > 
> > Hello all.  Being the most dynamic and honest bunch around, I thought I
> > would ask the list a simple question.
> > 
> > I have been on the NSA's mailing list for Secure Linux, and I have to say
> > above all, its slow list and heavily moderated :).  I have never installed
> > it yet, as I haven't found an extra box yet to implement it on...
> > 
> > But this all boils down to some questions:  How "Secure" do you think it is?
> >   How usable do you think it is?  Is it something I should research more
> > into (As a coder, I'm interested about the process management and such...)
> > What are your feelings on the NSA Linux?
> 
> Bill,
> 
> What are you waiting for-- it's linux, it'll install on an old box you
> can find in a local bazar
> for a few dinars.
> 
> The NSA has the reputation of being one of the biggest employers of
> mathematicians in the world.
> In addition, it is reputed to be the host of some of the best
> computational facilities in the world.
> It is a very serious outfit.
> My only regret is that the amazing work that must be done there is not
> publically available for the
> scientific community at large. (Fortunately we have the technion ...).
> Thus, it is a momentous event that
> the nsa invests time in an  project like the selinux kernel. It is a
> sign that they have got the message
> with respect to open source security projects.
> The security model inherent in the project is not new, but is
> influential and worth study.
> Personally I think it is a great chance to get involved with state of
> the art security issues
> (os security), and that if you are a programmer you definitely should
> get involved.
> 
> Just my 0.2
> 
> Christopher
-- 
Nick
Network Security Consultant
CISSP, CCSI, MCSE, CCNA
Lucent Technologies/NPS
Raleigh, NC


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