signalarticles

Streamlining Coalition Mission Network Participation

June 17, 2013

By George I. Seffers

NATO and eight coalition nations participating in the Coalition Warrior Interoperability eXploration, eXperimentation and eXamination, eXercise (CWIX) are working to reduce the amount of time it takes to join coalition networks in the future. On average, it took a year or more for a nation to join the Afghan Mission Network, but officials hope to trim that down to a matter of weeks, says Lt. Col, Jenniffer Romero, USAF, the CWIX Future Mission Network focus area lead.

“On average, it was taking a year, maybe 18 months, for a nation to join the Afghan Mission Network, and usually we don’t have that much time,” says Col. Romero, who also serves as the chief, cyber assessments for the U.S. Joint Staff J6 Command, Control, Communications and Computers Assessments Division.

The network for future operations will be a federated network modeled after the Afghan Mission Network, for which NATO offered the core infrastructure that participating nations could connect with using their own networks. Col. Romero explains that the goal is to have core services up and running on “day zero,” which she defines as the day pre-deployment orders drop. “Our goal is for the lead nation or lead organization to have the core up and running on that day and for people to be able to join within weeks as opposed to months and months,” she says.

To streamline the process, officials are creating templates of instructions for joining future coalition networks, which NATO officials refer to as the Future Mission Network and U.S. officials dub the Mission Partner Environment. For the CWIX exercise, which runs from June 3-20, they have built a mission network that includes core services such as voice, chat, email and document handling. “We’re assessing those core enterprise services on a future mission network that was built for CWIX 13 specifically for that purpose,” the colonel states.

Cyber Commander Calls for Consolidated Activities

June 12, 2013

By Robert K. Ackerman

In the midst of a raging controversy over widespread National Security Agency (NSA) monitoring, the head of the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command defends cyber surveillance efforts and calls for greater consolidation of cyber activities among diverse organizations.

Cyber, Security Focuses for Marine Forces Pacific

June 12, 2013

By Rita Boland

Cyberwarfare is a primary concern for the U.S. Marine Corps as it continues its rebalance toward the Asia-Pacific region. With the growing involvement of cyber in every operation along with specific concerns of virtual attacks from large nations in the region, emphasis on the new domain is becoming increasingly important.

Telecommunications Supply Chain is Safe … for Now

June 5, 2013

By Robert K. Ackerman

Concerns about the telecommunications supply chain have led U.S. network providers to institute extensive security procedures, but government officials are looking at establishing formal guidelines for procuring network components overseas—for better or worse.

Navy Keeps Up With Innovation Despite Tight Budgets

June 3, 2013

By Henry S. Kenyon

If necessity is the mother of invention, innovation will be the father as the U.S. Navy seeks new methods that will allow it to continue to modernize amid harsh budget constraints.

The Biggest Threat Today

June 1, 2013

By Kent R. Schneider

U.S. Director of National Intelligence Lt. Gen. James R. Clapper, USAF (Ret.), recently testified in Congress that cyber attacks have become the greatest single threat facing the United States. He went on to say the threat is particularly acute for the nation’s critical infrastructure and reminded Congress that the majority of critical infrastructure in the United States is privately owned.

The European Union Internal Security Plan, written in 2011 and updated annually, makes the same assertion: cyber security has become the greatest vulnerability for the European Union and its member nations.

Cybersecurity has become so important because the range of threats includes recreational hackers, hacktivists, cyber criminals, terrorists, and state or state-sponsored actors. The targets include government networks, systems, applications and data as well as those of industry and private citizens. At the same time, the tools available to bad actors are diverse, sophisticated and inexpensive or free—and easy to obtain on the Internet.

If you have not visited a cyber laboratory recently, I encourage you to do so. Should you have doubted the seriousness of the threat, such a visit will make a believer of you. Many of AFCEA’s member companies have good laboratories; the iCollege at the National Defense University has a great set of laboratories specific to various types of systems; and the National Police Academy in Prague, Czech Republic, has done some amazing work in computer forensics that will open your eyes. In addition, the NATO Cyber Center of Excellence in Tallinn, Estonia, was developed to support a multinational approach to cybersecurity.

Informal, Self-Organizing, Ad Hoc Relational Networks Are the New Multipliers

June 1, 2013

By Lt. Ben Kohlmann, USN

The advent of social networks is transforming the way the military does business. Net-centric warfare once was in vogue, seeking to capture electrons and raw fiber to transform the way combat was fought. Yet an even more powerful and unanticipated net is making waves in remarkable ways. It is the power of relational networks, fostered by loose ties and catalyzed by the proliferation of quickly evolving online platforms.

These networks of individuals are as far removed from centralized chains of command as anyone can be. They span ranks, ages, services and communities. As with water running down a rocky mountain, they find a way to interact and build each other’s knowledge base no matter the formal obstacles laid down by bureaucracy.

The power of these relationships was made very real to me last year when I joined Twitter. Randomly following military-related users, I soon became engaged in deeply strategic conversations with people I never would have found on my own. Senior Army officers were engaging informally with enlisted sailors and deployed Air Force pilots, sparring and parrying with a flurry of articles, links and philosophical references. Nobody told these folks to work together—they simply assembled on their own.

It became apparent that not only were these self-organizing and ever-evolving groups of people learning about warfare in a totally new way, they were becoming friends. Service members continents apart from each other, never having met, now had groups of peers and friends to have a beer with while on temporary assigned duty or leave. Their virtual conversations turned into very real, face-to-face interactions.

Cybersecurity-- Everybody’s Doing It

June 1, 2013

By George I. Seffers

With attacks on critical data increasing in numbers, intensity and sophistication, securing networks is becoming a global effort while fostering greater information sharing among agencies, governments and the public and private sectors. The future of cybersecurity offers greater opportunities for industry and greater cooperation on national security and critical infrastructure protection, say executives at some of the largest U.S. defense companies.

The Best Laid Plans Fly Awry

June 1, 2013

By Max Cacas

The U.S. Air Force’s migration to a new enterprise network known as AFNET will be at least two years late in completion because the project turned out to be more complicated than planners anticipated.

Command’s Cybersecurity  Crosses Domains, Directorates

June 1, 2013

By Rita Boland

The U.S. Transportation Command has taken a novel approach to its Joint Cyber Center, reflecting the unusual needs of this organization that plays a role across U.S. military operations. Officials have found their decisions, such as uniting disparate experts in a single physical location, help save resources while increasing cooperation with the many industry partners that have integral roles in the efforts to keep supplies and people moving.

You are here

Pages