MontaVista’s MVShield is Ready to Support CentOS 7 Beyond June 2024

 

MontaVista extends the lifespan of the CentOS 7 operating system beyond the June 30, 2024, End-Of-Life (EOL) and receives significant customer interest. With MVShield, customers are assured critical security vulnerabilities are quickly addressed, ensuring significantly reduced attack surfaces.

 

San Jose, CA, 27 June 2024 –– MontaVista® Software, LLC, a leader in commercial Embedded Linux® products and engineering services, refreshed the commitment that MVShield will provide CentOS 7.9 critical CVE updates and bug fixes along with technical support until at least another decade.

MontaVista launched MVShield to support the long-term CentOS lifecycle and specific SLA coverage needed by customers. MVShield has gained wide adoption in the marketplace across security-savvy customers running mission-critical payloads. MVShield allows customers’ specific CentOS 7.9 content with custom additions to be maintained for continued security after standard community support has been terminated. 

For its entire 20+ year history MontaVista has focused on security, continuously adding resources to this strategic pillar, from initial collaboration on SELinux, to HardHat Linux to MVShield and Zero Trust initiatives.

The importance of continuous security updates is underscored by several high-profile cyberattacks in recent years, such as the 2021 Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack, which disrupted fuel supplies across the Eastern United States, and the 2020 SolarWinds hack, which compromised numerous government and corporate networks globally. These incidents highlight the vulnerabilities of unpatched systems. One very recent example is the cyberattack against CDK Global which resulted in 15000 retail car outlets having their operations severely compromised. In these cases having backup from companies like MontaVista can allow quick restoration or in many cases mitigation of the vulnerabilities that were exploited.

Recently conducted research by Kaspersky indicates a significant rise in cyberattacks using exploits against Linux systems - a nearly 130 percent spike in attacks targeting Linux users year-over-year. Additionally, over the last four years there has been a 65 percent increase in registered CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) which indicates an increasing trend in Linux vulnerabilities.

Furthermore, upcoming regulations like the EU Cyber Resilience Act and existing directives such as the U.S. Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity and the NIST Zero-Trust initiative emphasize the necessity of robust cybersecurity measures. These regulations and guidelines require organizations to maintain secure and resilient systems to protect against evolving cyber threats.

MVShield provides a one-stop solution to all these security concerns. Additionally, through MontaVista’s MVSecure professional engineering design services, custom security implementation and detailed government and commercial certification are available.

 

“MontaVista has always provided long-term support, and it’s only natural we should continue to provide this assistance to our customers on CentOS 7.x”, said Iisko Lappalainen, Vice President of Product Management at MontaVista Software. “With ever increasing demand for security, we believe all customers using accessible systems will benefit from including the critical CVE fixes to their baseline that MVShield provides.”

MVShield for CentOS 6/7/8 is available now. MontaVista invites interested parties to contact MontaVista at sales@mvista.com and/or visit www.mvista.com for more information.