Multiple Independent Levels of Security (MILS) is a security architecture based on separation of functionality and control of information flow. According to Harrison et al. (2005):
Multiple Independent Levels of Security and Safety (MILS) is a joint research effort between academia, industry, and government to develop and implement a high-assurance, real-time architecture for embedded systems. The goal of the MILS architecture is to ensure that all system security policies are nonbypassable, evaluatable, always invoked, and tamper-proof. Using these formally proven security policies guarantees information flow control, data isolation, predictable process control, damage limitation, and resource availability.
MILS is implemented using mechanisms built in the kernels and middleware components to create authorized communication paths (Harrison et al., 2005).
References
Harrison, S. W., Hanebutte, N., Oman, P. W., & Alves-Foss, J. (2005, October). The MILS architecture for a secure global information grid. Journal of Software Engineering. http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/702523/9277782/1288928922607/200510-Harrison.pdf?token=F%2B8Wfg1xFsXYDlE8inVd55i5Ml0%3D
Resources
Required
- Formal Specification and Verification of Data Separation in a Separation Kernel for an Embedded System
- A Secure System Architecture for Measuring Instruments in Legal Metrology (see background sections)
- Implications of Multi-Core Architectures on the Development of Multiple Independent Levels of Security (MILS) Compliant Systems
- A New Operating System for Security Tagged Architecture Hardware in Support of Multiple Independent Levels of Security (MILS) Compliant System