The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has joined the seL4 Foundation, an organisation which aims to expand the ecosystem around the seL4 microkernel for software.
It strengthens the NCSC’s commitment to the use of seL4. A kernel is an element of a software system that controls all access to resources and communications between components of the system, and plays a crucial role in providing resilience against attacks.
NCSC uses it to enforce separation in a number of higher assurance situations, which it said has saved costs by reducing the need for specialist hardware without compromising cyber security.
In addition, its researchers have studied seL4 over the past few years and said its mathematically backed verification and automated proofs of correctness and security indicate a high level of resilience against software attacks.
NCSC technical director Dr Ian Levy said: “We’re pleased to join the seL4 Foundation. seL4 is some of the most highly assured software and its development plays an important role in the next generation of high assurance devices.
“We support the long term stability of the seL4 microkernel ecosystem and are looking at opportunities to develop our use cases for it.”
The seL4 Foundation has made the microkernel available as open source on GitHub and provides support.
Image from iStock, Nastco
