Goverment must be the champion for high-security products. The marketplace has never produced high security products spontaneously. The Government versions of products have never been viable over the long term. A third way is needed — the nurturing environment produced by Steve Walker's Computer Security Initiative.

Four things are needed for a nurturing environment: security standards, evaluation of secure products against those standards, policy mandating their use, and evidence that the policy will be enforced. Standards, an evaluation program, and policy exist. The evidence that the policy is enforced is weak.

This site is a collection of materials about this situation and what we can do about it. — David Elliott Bell

Looking Back at the Bell-LaPadula Model

Looking Back: Addendum

Short Takes