Common Criteria Compliance

SQL Server 2005 SP2 includes a new, advanced configuration option called Common Criteria Compliance enabled. Government, military, financial, and other entities with serious security needs may require Common Criteria certification and implementation. Although Common Criteria superseded C2 in the security world, it doesn’t subsume all the C2 audit-mode–option functionality. Common Criteria Compliance includes the following features:

 Microsoft formally submitted SQL Server 2005 for Common Criteria certification in January 2006. SQL Server 2005 SP1 was evaluated against the Common Criteria evaluation assurance level 1 (EAL1). SQL Server 2005 SP2 is currently being evaluated against the Common Criteria evaluation assurance level 4 (EAL4+) in Germany by Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (BSI)—the German government's Federal Office for Information Security. You can find the official posting on the BSI Web site (www.bsi.bund.de/english/index.htm).