Paul Smith: Red Hat’s Operating System Cryptographic Modules Get NIST Data Security Certifications

Red Hat has secured Federal Information Processing Standard 140-2 certifications from the National Institute of Standards and Technology for its nine cryptographic modules associated with the company’s operating system.

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1 OS received nine FIPS certifications for modules that include OpenSSL, OpenSSH Server, OpenSSH Client, Libgcrypt, NSS, Libreswan, Kernel Cryptographic API, Kernel Cryptographic API with CPAFC and GnuTLS, Red Hat said Monday.

“Protecting highly-sensitive data, from employee and customer financial data to national security details, is a critical need for modern IT departments, particularly those operating in the public sector,” said Paul Smith, vice president and general manager of Red Hat’s public sector business.

Smith added the FIPS 140-2 and the Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Level 4+ certifications seek to reflect Red Hat’s efforts to provide an operating system for environments with high-security requirements.

The NIST FIPS certification also cover the use of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1 modules in hardware configurations such as Hewlett Packard Enterprise‘s ProLiant DL380p Gen8 with PAA and IBM‘s Power8 Little Endian 8286-41A.

Atsec information security performed validation tests on Red Hat’s cryptopraphic modules through its testing laboratory in Texas.