Surprise today from the NSA who uploaded the source code of an application to GitHub to help Linux system administrators lock down their networks.
The open-source software uploaded by the intelligence agency is called the System Integrity Management Platform (SIMP) and is designed to help you make sure your networks comply with US Department of Defense security standards.
The service says it can be customized by administrators to meet their individual security needs.
“The open source method of transferring technology from federal laboratories to the marketplace is extremely effective,” said Linda Burger, director of NSA’s Technology Transfer Program.
“The open source community can leverage the NSA project, and the government can benefit from the expertise and the prospect of further development of the application by the community. It's a win for everyone - and for the nation itself”
To use the software, you must be using Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.6 or 7.1, or the same versions of CentOS. The software is released under version 2 of the Apache License.
The release comes as part of the NSA's ongoing technology transfer program, a program that aims to bring code in-house and make it available to the open source community to enhance security.
The NSA's budget is secret, rumored to be just under a billion dollars a month. So it's nice that they're giving something back to the online community besides just spying on everyone.
