Security Controls for Computer Systems: Report of Defense Science Board Task Force on Computer Security - RAND Report R-609-1
In October 1967 a Task Force was organized by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (now the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) to study and recommend appropriate computer security safeguards that would protect classified information in multi-access, resource-sharing computer systems. The report of the Task Force, which functioned under the auspices of the Defense Science Board, was published by The Rand Corporation in February 1970 for the Office of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering, Department of Defense. A slightly modified version of the report -- the only omissions were two memoranda of transmittal from the Task Force to the Chairman of the Defense Science Board and onward to the Secretary of Defense -- was subsequently published as Rand Report R-609, Security Controls for Computer Systems. At that time it was felt that because representatives from government agencies participated in the work of the Task Force, the information in the report would appear to be of an official nature, suggestive of the policies and guidelines that would eventually be established. Consequently, it was felt prudent to classify the report Confidential overall. On October 10, 1975, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency declassified it.
Nearly a decade later the report is still a valuable comprehensive discussion of security controls for resource-sharing computer systems. Ideas first expressed in this report and even occasional figures from it have gradually seeped into the technical literature, but it still contains material that has not been published elsewhere. For example, it includes an appendix that outlines and formally specifies a set of access controls that can accommodate the intricate structure of the classification system used by the defense establishment.
The original classification of the report limited its distribution largely to defense agencies and defense contractors; civil agencies of government and industry at large generally did not have access to it. Because of the continuing importance of computer security, the report is being reissued at this time for wider distribution.
The support of The Rand Corporation in reprinting this report is gratefully acknowledged.