HP bolsters Unix security

Hewlett-Packard said Monday that it has improved the security of its HP-UX 11i version of Unix, releasing two tools to simplify the setting of a computer's security levels and obtaining an international security certification.

HP released version 2 of its Bastille software, which sets a computer's security to an appropriate level based on a series of questions for the system administrator. In addition, HP introduced the new Install-Time Security tool, which lets an administrator select from a number of preset security levels when first setting up the machine.

The security software may be downloaded for free.

Security has been important for networked computers for years, especially those powering military systems, but concern has been widening with terrorist attacks, war and the ever-increasing reliance businesses have on the Internet. As a result, computing companies are working to stamp out security vulnerabilities in their products, acquire security start-ups and in the case of HP, reduce the administrative headaches of securing a computer.

In addition, HP-UX 11i has received the evaluation assurance level 4 of the controlled access protection profile (EAL4-CAPP) Common Criteria certification, an international security standard, HP said. This certification level, while not the highest, is the same as that held by Sun Microsystems' Solaris 8, a competing version of Unix.

Oracle is working with Red Hat to obtain the Common Criteria certification for Linux.