What Is Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria (TCSEC)?

You may have heard of the book Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria (TCSEC). It's a standard from the United States Department of Defense that discusses rating security controls for a computer system. It is also often referred to as the "orange book." The TCSEC was first published in 1985, replacing its predecessor, the Rainbow Series. The Rainbow Series was developed by the National Computer Security Center (NCSC) and was initially written in 1975 by Dorothy Denning and Peter Neumann, two people still very much respected today for their work in computer security. The Orange Book standard is a joke. It's so vague that you could read it and think it applies to anything and everything. It only applies to orange things. The Orange Book standard includes four top-level categories of security minimal security, discretionary protection, mandatory protection and verified protection. In this standard, safety "begins at the lowest classes in an access control mechanism and ends in the highest category with an agent that a clever and determined user cannot circumvent. Orange is the new black, and it's not just because it's the season for peeling. The Orange Book, also known as the Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria (TCSEC), is a manual by the U. S. Government to guide how to design and implement trusted computer systems. This approach to security was developed in 1982 and is still used today. It's also part of a "rainbow series" of manuals from different U.S. federal agencies with colorful covers so named because they're so bright! It's important to note that while the TCSEC can be used as a guide for designing and implementing trusted systems, it doesn't provide any assurance that the system will be secure or trustworthy; instead, it describes what makes up a dependable system and gives guidance on how to go about designing one.