NSA assists Sun, Red Hat, and Apple harden their OS

Last Updated on Monday, 23 November 2009 06:32 Written by Jeffreycarr Monday, 23 November 2009 06:32

One of the top two recommendations that I make in “Inside Cyber Warfare” is to swap out Windows from hosts on those networks that are high value targets to other operating systems that don’t have as many vulnerabilities. Consequently, I was very happy to read that NSA Information Assurance director Richard Schaeffer told a Congressional committee that his agency is assisting Apple, Sun Microsystems and Red Hat Linux, in addition to Microsoft Windows 7, in hardening their respective OS’s. Good job. Diversity of operating systems on high value networks is a strategy that can be applied not only by government IT administrators but in financial institutions and other companies struggling to stem the tide of cyber attacks.