Security concerns for distributed systems

One of the stated purposes of the Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria (TCSEC) is “to provide a standard to manufacturers as to what security features to build into their new and planned commercial products in order to provide widely available systems that satisfy trust requirements (with particular emphasis on preventing the disclosure of data) for sensitive applications”. The trend in today´s technology is towards networked distributed systems. One of the major criticisms of the TCSEC, more commonly known as the Orange Book, and the draft Federal Criteria (FC), now the U.S. input to the international Common Criteria (CC) draft, concerns their inability to encompass distributed systems in their rating schemes. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the various aspects of security required for distributed systems and to describe the security requirements needed in criteria from which manufacturers could build secure distributed systems