While the government will certainly be on the lookout for new and innovative technologies to help its integration and security efforts, its choices will be limited to products that have received common criteria certification, which is an internationally recognized standard for evaluating security products. Since last July, only products evaluated by accredited national laboratories can be used in government networks. With only a few such labs in operation, and the certification process taking up to six months, there is already a large backlog of good products waiting to be certified, according to Jim Southworth, CTO of consultancy East by North Inc.  "There are going to be a lot of people scrambling to get certification," he says

January 2003  "Hunting for Gold in Homeland Security"  Light Reading  By Eugénie Larson