Further than displaying an wide line up of existing Linux solutions, vendors at this week's InfoSecurity show pointed to possible future offerings spanning from a Linux client for a CD-ROM encryption system to a Linux-enabled all-in-one device for securing both physical access and video surveillance.
In a sign of the growing union between information security and physical security, the InfoSecurity conference was joined this year with the East coast version of the ISC show, another recurrent event at New York City's Javits Center.
Conference sessions tended to skirt matters specific to OS and interoperability, focusing instead on convergence issues such as organizational restructurings and information sharing, as well as on what general types of tools to deploy against the latest nuances in bots, pharming, and other cyberattacks.
But on the show floor and in other conference byways, vendors and government contractors happily discussed OS platforms, including their reasons for favoring particular Linux distributions.
PD Inc., for example, is using a COTS implementation of embedded Linux in its all-in-one device for physical access, video surveillance and analysis, and storage now being developed under contract to the US Navy.
"We're getting everything that Red Hat would provide, while keeping the costs lower," according to Jason Pyeron, senior consultant at PD. The integrated device uses CAC cards with single sign-on (SSO) for authentication, along with a modular overall structure for quick expandability, Pyeron said, during an interview with LinuxPlanet at the show.
The contractor is currently testing the integrated appliance internally. But Pyeron anticipates a pilot test by the Navy in 2007.
Symark on the other hand, offers its PowerBroker and PowerPassword software on both Red Hat and Debian Linux, along with other varieties of Unix, said Carla Davies, sales engineer, in a meeting with LinuxPlanet on the show floor.
PowerBroker is designed to let organizations delegate Linux or Unix administrative privileges to trusted users without divulging the root password.
PowerPassword is a program for managing passwords across multiple authentication systems complying with the PAM specification.
For its part, Cyberoam has chosen embedded Red Hat Linux as the platform for Unified Threat Management, a gateway-enabled security appliance just now becoming available in the US.
The appliance combines a firewall with identity management, anti-virus, anti-spam, content filtering, intrusion detection and prevention, bandwidth management, VPN, and systems management capabilities, said Hermal Patel, CEO, in another interview.
Patel sees SonicWave and FortiNet as the company's primary competitors. "Unlike [the others], though, we are identity-based," he told LinuxPlanet.
India-based Cyberoam has been selling the appliance through Ernst & Young and Avaya on the Indian subcontinent.
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