What is the Common Criteria
The Common Criteria (CC) is a framework in which computer system users can specify their security requirements, vendors can then implement and/or make claims about the security attributes of their products, and testing laboratories can evaluate the products to determine if they actually meet the claims. In other words, Common Criteria provides assurance that the process of specification, implementation and evaluation of a computer security product has been conducted in a rigorous and standard manner.
The Common Criteria originated out of three standards:
- ITSEC - The European standard, developed in the early 1990s by France, Germay, the Netherlands, and the UK. It too was a unification of earlier work, such as the two UK approaches (the CESG UK Evaluation Scheme aimed at the Defence/Intelligence market and the DTI Green Book aimed at commercial use), and was adopted by some other countries, e.g. Australia.
- CTCPEC - The Canadian standard followed from the US DOD standard, but avoided several problems and was used jointly by evaluators from both the U.S. and Canada. The CTCPEC standard was first published in May 1993.
- TCSEC - The United States Department of Defense DOD 5200.28 Std, called the Orange Book and parts of the Rainbow Series. The Orange Book originated from Computer Security work including the Ware Report, done by the National Security Agency and the National Bureau of Standards (the NBS eventually became NIST) in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The central thesis of the Orange Book follows from the work done by Dave Bell and Len Lapadula for a set of protection mechanisms.
CC was produced by unifying these pre-existing standards, predominantly so that companies selling computer products for the government market (mainly for Defence or Intelligence use) would only need to have them evaluated against one set of standards. The CC was developed by the governments of Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, and the U.S.
International Recognition
As well as the Common Criteria standard, there is also a sub-treaty level Common Criteria MRA (Mutual Recognition Arrangement), whereby each party thereto recognizes evaluations against the Common Criteria standard done by other parties.
Originally signed in 1998 by Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, Australia and New Zealand joined 1999, followed by Finland, Greece, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and Spain in 2000.
The Arrangement has since been renamed Common Criteria Recognition Arrangement (CCRA) and membership currently stands at 26 countries.. Within the CCRA, only evaluations up to EAL 4 are mutually recognized (Including augmentation with flaw remediation). The European countries within the former ITSEC agreement typically recognize higher EALs as well. Evaluations at EAL5 and above tend to involve the security requirements of the host nation's government.
What Common Criteria Certification Means
Common Criteria, an internationally approved set of security standards, provides a clear and reliable evaluation of the security capabilities of Information Technology products. By providing an independent assessment of a product's ability to meet security standards, Common Criteria gives customers more confidence in the security of Information Technology products and leads to more informed decisions. Security-conscious customers, such as the Australian and U.S. Federal Governments, are requiring Common Criteria certification as a determining factor in purchasing decisions. Since the requirements for certification are clearly established, vendors can target very specific security needs while providing broad product offerings.