Stephen Smalley has been awarded with a Director of National Intelligence Fellows Award for his work on SELinux. Details here.

Director of National Intelligence, John D. Negroponte, presented the first DNI Fellows Awards to nine renowned members of the Intelligence Community at a ceremony today in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. The DNI Fellows Awards program recognizes and rewards outstanding technical achievement within the Intelligence Community.

“These distinguished experts are the best of the best — professionals in whom we have enormous trust and confidence,” said John D. Negroponte, Director of National Intelligence. […] “

Anyone who’s had anything to do with the SELinux project will understand what a profound impact Stephen has had on the project, as well as both Linux and computer security in general. Congratulations, Stephen.

It’s amazing to consider that the leader of a Linux-based project is being recognized at such a high and critical level within the government.

The UK government also seems to be clued in. The second keynote speaker at the upcoming SELinux Symposium is Dr Steve Marsh, Director of the Central Sponsor for Information Assurance unit in the UK Cabinet Office.