|
The Sentinel controls access to hard drive(s), network(s), ports
and peripherals through a Smart Card interface. With Sentinel,
the computer or server can’t be booted up, and network, I/O Port
and peripheral connectivity can’t be established unless certain
interlocks are met as specified in a Security Profile tailored
to each user’s security clearance and need to know. The user’s
Security Profile, PIN and Password (encrypted) are programmed
onto the user’s Smart Card by the organization’s Security
Administrator. Therefore, access to valuable information and
critical functions is protected and completely controlled by the
organization.
In addition to providing strong security, the
Sentinel also has the capability to turn a normal desktop
computer into a multi-level secure workstation. It allows ONE
computer to effectively operate at up to three levels of
security and control how each user can access and process data
at each of these levels. Once again, the configuration of the
security system is controlled through the user’s Smart Card.
Configurations include the number of security levels authorized
for user access plus the number of networks, I/O ports and
modems available to the user at each security level.
The Sentinel is available as a kit and can be
installed into modern desktop computers.
back to top
The Dynamic Data Labeling System (DDLS) is being
developed to augment existing IPSec Virtual Private Network (VPN)
technology by providing for the authentication of users and
Mandatory Access Control (MAC). This overall capability allows
the VPN to ensure that what user A sees and accesses is not
necessarily available to user B. The most practical application
of this technology is to provide a secure means to remotely
access, via a TCP/IP network, data stored in large “legacy”
databases by numerous users with different access rights and/or
security clearances.
A Smart Card stores each user’s access-rights
label and is used as a token to authenticate the user to the
client machine or IP. Once the user is authenticated, the user’s
access-rights label is read and utilized by the VPN client to
accept or reject packets via the VPN.
The overall
design of the DDLS is independent of a specific label format. In
fact, any label format that is capable of defining the number of
labels required to support the identification of user access
rights and access rights requirements is acceptable as long as
consistency is maintained throughout the environment of
authorized users of the legacy database(s). If the DDLS is used
to support multiple legacy systems in which there will be a
large number of remote users from different organizations, a
standard label format should be considered such as defined in
Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) Publication 188,
“Standard Security Label for Information Transfer” and the CIPSO
Label Format defined by the IETF. Of significance, data labeling
is accomplished external to the database. Therefore, the
labeling process will not disturb the database.
back to top
|
