A lot of the problems we encounter with security can be traced back to the dawn of computing. The simple fact of the matter is that the major operating systems in use today were not build with security in mind.

For the last 10 years or so security has been more or less added on to the operating system as part of an attempt to make up for original oversight. Some times that means actually upgrading the operating system with new components, but more often it means buying additional security software and hardware that gets very expensive quickly.

But what is somebody found a way to build a secure operating system from the ground up? And better yet, what if you could host instances of widely used operating systems today on the base of the new more secure operating system?

That's the basic intent behind a new subsidiary of Green Hills Software, which has its roots in the embedded systems space. Green Hills Software has created a new subsidiary called Integrity Global Security that is marketing the Integrity-178B operating system.

The Integrity operating carries an EAL6+ certification from the National Information Assurance Partnership, which is a cross U.S. government agency certification body managed by the National Security Agency.

The Integrity operating system is used today in mission-critical environment such as the B1 bomber and various other fighter jets and commercial airlines. By creating a separate division committed to increasing the overall distribution and commercial acceptance of Integrity, Green Hills Software is trying to bring to market and offering that would provide the same level of security that the government insists on for major projects to classic enterprise environments.

To that end, the Integrity operating system is built on a modular architecture that allows Windows, Linux and Solaris operating systems to function as guests on top of the more secure Integrity operating system. Dell and Toshiba both have established relationship with Integrity to support the operating system on their platforms, and it's likely that a fair number of system builders would take an interest as well.

But if Integrity can find a way to build a more secure operating system that can essentially support existing applications, you have to ask the question why aren't the major operating system providers embracing similar concepts. At the very least they may want to think about licensing the Integrity technology now that we can throw any number of multi-core processors at any potential performance issue.

What all this comes down to is now that we have the raw horsepower available, it's time to go back and do something meaningful about computer security at the operating system level. That may be wishful thinking, but it would probably be a whole lot more productive use of that hardware than trying to add another feature to an application that most people are never going to discover anyway.

We apparently are living in a time of great change, so possibly the time has finally come to perhaps think about just starting over again when it comes to security.