Common Criteria, which is a set of well-known standards of assurance for sharing classified information among government agencies, has blessed Microsoft with their Evaluation Assurance Level (EAL) 4+ for several of Microsoft products. Common Criteria is an international standard and achieving EAL levels (which range from the low of 1 to a high of 7) is important for organizations interested in winning federal contracts.
In the past the following Microsoft products received EAL 4+ certification.
1. Windows 2000 Server and Advanced Server
2. Windows 2000 Professional
3. Exchange Server 2003
4. Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2004
The following products received the EAL 4+ rating just recently.
1. Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition (32-bit) with Service Pack 1.
2. Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition (32-bit and 64-bit versions) with Service Pack 1.
3. Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition (32-bit and 64-bit versions) with Service Pack 1.
4. Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Certificate Server, Certificate Issuing and Management Components (CIMC) (Security Level 3 Protection Profile, Version 1.0).
5. Microsoft Windows XP, Professional with Service Pack 2.
6. Microsoft Windows XP, Embedded with Service Pack 2.
