TCS News

Trusted Computer Solutions Releases Automated Operating System Hardening Tool to Support Novell SUSE

Security Blanket 4.0 Provides Role-Based Access Control and Expanded Operating System Support

HERNDON, Va. – January 25, 2010 – Trusted Computer Solutions (TCS), a leading developer of cross domain and cyber security solutions, today announced that its widely adopted automated Operating System (OS) hardening tool, Security Blanket, now supports Novell SUSE as well as openSUSE and Fedora 11. The product already supports Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Solaris, and Oracle Enterprise Linux. This new version of Security Blanket also provides role-based access control (RBAC) and a JAVA-based administration console. By providing such broad OS support TCS is expanding its market reach into new U.S. verticals and into Europe.

The addition of RBAC provides customers with enhanced security by allowing users to only perform operations that are appropriate for their specific roles. System administrators with responsibility for lock down and policy assurance can be assigned a higher level of functional authority than security officers who may only need access to assessment and baseline reports.

The new Java-based administration console in Security Blanket makes the user experience more intuitive and flexible. For customers who implement their own customized security policies, the newly enhanced Profile Builder will make the process much easier to implement and manage. Even the novice system administrator can develop strong security guidelines by searching a variety of predefined options to create the appropriate lock down configurations.

"We were looking for a tool that would automate the process of locking down our OS's to be compliant with the DISA STIGs and found Security Blanket,” said Keith Arthur, Unique Communications Solutions. “The product efficiently provides an assessment to tell us what is non-compliant on a server and then automatically fixes it so that the server is compliant. In addition to our own internal use, we will definitely recommend Security Blanket to our clients."

“Enhancements to Security Blanket are the direct result of customers’ requests,” stated Ed Hammersla, Chief Operating Officer for Trusted Computer Solutions. “SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is helping customers take advantage of commodity servers which saves money and reduces power consumption. Our goal is to have Security Blanket support the majority of server operating systems that are running business and mission critical applications. This new support for SUSE means that customers can use Security Blanket to consistently lock down their enterprise-wide operating systems whether they are running, SUSE, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Oracle Enterprise Linux, or Solaris.”

Security Blanket is the only enterprise platform that automatically locks down (or hardens), Linux and Solaris OS’s to meet industry standard security guidelines such as the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) UNIX Security Implementation Technical Guide (STIGs) or Center for Internet Security (CIS) Benchmarks. It is a cost-effective way to consistently and predictably secure enterprise-wide systems in a fraction of the time it takes to lock them down manually.

Security Blanket can easily assess the security posture of individual systems or groups of systems, identify OS vulnerabilities, and automatically remediate those vulnerabilities by automatically changing the actual OS configuration settings that were identified as vulnerable. Security Blanket goes even further by allowing an “undo” capability to reverse the hardening actions if applications are adversely affected by the lock down. Assessment and Baseline reports are an inherent feature of Security Blanket, which facilitates providing audit documentation to Security Officers.

About Trusted Computer Solutions, Inc.
Founded in 1994, Trusted Computer Solutions (TCS) provides a broad portfolio of cyber security solutions that have a proven track record of proactively preventing government and commercial organizations from being compromised. The Company offers the SecureOffice® suite of cross domain solutions that allow the secure transfer and sharing of information across networks of different classification levels; Security Blanket®, an automated operating system lock down and management tool; and CounterStorm™, a behavioral, statistical and content-based anomaly detection system that rapidly identifies targeted and zero-day attacks. All TCS solutions are backed by the company’s Professional Services group, which consists of nationally recognized experts in security policy, architecture, planning, and implementation. TCS is headquartered in Herndon, Va., with offices in Champaign, Ill. and San Antonio, TX. For more information, visit www.TrustedCS.com, follow @TrustedCS on Twitter or visit Trusted Computer Solutions' Security Blanket Technical Blog http://tcs-security-blanket.blogspot.com/.

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Media Contact: Kristine Gager, Welz & Weisel Communications, 703.218.3555, kristine@w2comm.com