Developers have turned Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux), a prototype created in part by the National Security Agency, into a module that operates almost seamlessly on the Linux operating system.

"Even though SELinux wasn't intended as a complete secure system, we knew that as released it could make a substantial impact to the security of systems that incorporated it," says Grant Wagner, technical director for NSA's Secure Systems Research Office.

It might seem a little unusual for the NSA to be working hand-in-hand with free-software aficionados. After all, this is the agency depicted as a clutch of inveterate snoops in the movie Enemy of the State, not to mention a top contender for the highest number of "Big Brother" awards.

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