Red Hat has unveiled an initiative dubbed 'Security in a Networked World' at the LinuxWorld tradeshow in San Francisco.

As part of the programme, the Linux vendor showcased its Red Hat Certificate System that allows organisations to manage security certificates used to sign emails, or authenticate users for online banking applications. It also supports authentication through the use of smartcards. 

Red Hat has been working with the Apache Foundation to add support for the Firefox browser and Thunderbird email client through the use of Apache's open source Network Security Service Libraries.

The collaboration will allow users of both systems to send and receive authenticated emails with Thunderbird, while organisations including online banks and web stores can use the system to authenticate users through smartcards in combination with Firefox.

The Certificate System follows the launch of Red Hat's directory server in June. Both applications are based on the iPlanet software that Red Hat acquired from AOL last year.

Other than the directory server, however, Red Hat is not open sourcing the certificate system. Product manager Mike Ferris told vnunet.com that the company will open source the software at some point, but declined to give a projected date.

"We want to make sure that we have a well established user community as well several of the key customers. We want to work with them so we have a correct path towards open sourcing," he said.

The Certificate System will be available immediately at a cost of $6 per managed certificate.

Red Hat will also emphasise some of the past security certifications that its software has achieved. The vendor plans to unveil its plans to get recertified for Federal Information Processing Standards, and expand existing certifications to new applications beyond its operating system.

The vendor also is set to release a new system monitoring component that is part of the Red Hat Network management suite.

The monitoring service will allow administrators to monitor the servers in their network or online service. It detects problems with hardware or software, and can warn staff when indicators such as processor or memory usage, or a specific application, show abnormal behaviour.

The Red Hat Network application is a free tool that lets users download and install updates. Additional modules offering added functionalities like the new monitoring component are available for a fee of $96 per module per year.