Security is one of the highest profile issues in IT and there has been constant baiting between the Microsoft and Linux camps over which has the more secure operating system.

At the start of the year we saw Bill Gates wake up to the fact that security is a good thing, and now there is news that the US National Security Agency (NSA) has been working on a security module that plugs straight into a Linux distribution.

Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux) is a prototype aimed at enhancing the the operating system with new features such as mandatory access control.

Most operating systems use discretionary access controls, details that are provided voluntarily by the user such as ID and password, whereas mandatory access control uses information outside the user's reach, such as an IP address, to validate access.

It may seem odd that the NSA has developed a security module. In the X-Files world of government agencies, the NSA is often associated with code breaking, but the other aspect of its role is code making, hence the interest in a secure Linux.

These new features may encourage other US government agencies to climb aboard the open source bandwagon. Although Linux and other open source solutions are seeing a gradual increase in popularity in the UK and Europe, there is still a reluctance to make the move in the US.

While it is predicted that use of Linux could save the US government $1bn a year in licence fees alone, many departments still appear to favour products by Microsoft, Oracle et al.

So far, the barriers to adoption seem to be that Linux is not on the list of approved operating systems, and lacks the fully-fledged enterprise class reputation of its competitors.

But the strangle hold of proprietary software on the government agencies is starting to break, as both IBM and Hewlett Packard have recently sold large Linux-based systems into several federal agencies.

The heightened interest in security also goes some way to explaining this reluctance but, with the development of SELinux, this concern should be eased and the door should now be ajar for more Linux-based systems to get into government offices.

As far as gaining official approval is concerned, that comes down to the NSA, so the fact that it has instigated the development of SELinux should make this approval far easier to gain.