2008 12 SIGNAL Connections

Secretary Michael Chertoff outlines new challenges.

The West is especially vulnerable to cyber terrorism.

Combat Pilots Take Flight in Classroom
Ten graduates of undergraduate pilot training became the first students in a familiarization program for pilots of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). The four-week Unmanned Aircraft Systems Fundamentals course is designed to give personnel a feel for the air- and ground-based battlespace environment through 100 hours of simulator and academic classes. They are being trained on a computer-based simulation with high-end gaming technology and are learning to integrate aircraft on a cyber-aerial battlefield. Eventually, the training will become more personal as UAS warfighting software will be developed for pilots to use for practice on their home computers.

Visit MyBase Without Leaving Home
The Air Education and Training Command purchased land in Second Life and launched MyBase, which grants the public access to U.S. Air Force information. Officials hope MyBase will attract people interested in learning more about the military branch. The site will include links for enlistment and commissioning as well as contact information for the nearest recruiter. A possible long-term use for the technology is to open a private site in a yet-undetermined three-dimensional world, where airmen can attend virtual training and receive course credit. To access MyBase, visit Second Life and type “MyBase” into the keyword search.

Infrared Tactical Light
Warfighters and law enforcement personnel require rugged tactical illumination to carry out their missions. This family of handheld and

Vehicle Mission Processor
This rugged multicore mission processor subsystem is designed to meet U.S. military specifications for operating in harsh environmental conditions. The DuraCOR 810-DUO is built around a modular, open-architecture design with an Intel Core2 Duo central processing unit, a flash solid state disk and an expandable rugged chassis. For more information, visit www.parvus.com.

Homefront Help is SIGNAL Connections’ effort to support U.S. service members, veterans and their families. The column highlights programs that offer resources and assistance to the military community ranging from care packages to benefits and everything in between. In that same spirit, Homefront Help presents opportunities for readers to donate time, offer resources and send words of thanks to those who sacrifice for freedom. Programs that provide services are listed in red. Opportunities for the public to reach out to service members are listed in blue. Each program description includes a link to the organization's Web site, when available.

Operation Support Our Troops
Like so many troop support organizations, this one grew out of a family’s effort to be there for their soldier as well as all others serving their country, and when these people got started, there was no stopping them. What began with rallies has grown to a full-fledged support mechanism that involves the provision of packages at holidays, fundraisers, and visits and supplies for those injured in combat as well as tributes to those who paid the ultimate price for home and country. The mission of Operation Support Our Troops is to offer opportunities for all Americans to demonstrate to members of the armed forces and their commander in chief that they are supported and appreciated for their service. According to the organization, the goal is to ensure that troops know that “united we stand and divided we fall are not empty words, but words to which we subscribe.”

The U.S. intelligence community should increase its role in protecting the nation’s critical infrastructures by becoming an active part of the operational aspects of safeguarding the essential services Americans have come to rely on. Intelligence agencies can and should be proactive in providing the information that federal, state and local organizations as well as the private sector need to ensure continuity of operations. However, to accomplish this task, a framework and methodology must be established that outlines a doctrine for intelligence support in the national critical infrastructure protection mission.

These are some of the conclusions and recommendations members of AFCEA International’s Intelligence Committee propose in their most recent white paper, “Intelligence Support to Critical Infrastructure Protection.” The paper, which was released after the 2008 Fall Intelligence Symposium so it could include discussions from the event, applauds the steps the federal government has taken to improve information sharing but advises that additional effort is needed.

The credit crunch defining the financial meltdown threatens to derail small business activity in the United States. Many small firms rely on credit for everyday operations because they lack the liquidity to fund their business activities. As entrepreneurs find it increasingly difficult to obtain necessary seed money, potential startups may remain stillborn.

Many economists predict the credit crunch will lead to higher unemployment; overall, small companies create many more jobs than do big corporations. But faced with the current financial crisis, small businesses are expected to cut back on jobs or close their doors completely.

This credit crunch, economists say, is substantially bigger and more complex than the last major financial crisis: the savings and loan (S&L) bailout of 1989 and the recession that followed a year later. The price tags also were much smaller, maybe as much as $200 billion to cover the cost of about 1,000 failed S&Ls, historians estimate. By contrast, what many think of as the Wall Street bailout will cost a minimum of $700 billion, a figure that does not include shoring up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with combined assets of more than $2 trillion.

Small businesses are coping with the crisis by cutting back on marketing and advertising, delaying new hires, keeping inventories low and reducing health coverage for employees.

The U.S. Defense Department is working to alleviate the unique set of challenges small businesses face when working in the military’s world. Small companies are critical to the U.S. economy—employing more people and creating more jobs than large corporations—and its work in support of the Defense Department also is vital. Small business is key to the military’s ability to sustain a competitive industrial base, both as a supplier of goods and services and as a leader of innovation.

According to the Defense Department’s Office of Small Business Programs (OSBP), more than 38 percent of total defense contracting dollars are awarded to small businesses. Over the past few years, the military has undertaken an aggressive outreach effort to identify veteran-owned and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses to improve those companies’ prime and subcontracting opportunities. Officials with the office explain that the sacrifices veterans made for the country must be recognized at all levels of government, and the Defense Department is committed to doing its part.

Large companies are flying full throttle into the clouds with new offerings and business models that will enable them to take full advantage of the latest major computing development. With cloud computing identified by some experts as potentially having the same impact on information technology and information sharing as personal computers and the Internet, these firms are seizing the opportunity to offer customers a variety of user experiences that they say will change the way users live, work and play.

With the promise of new and exciting ways to service stalwart customers as well as to entice new ones, it’s no surprise that computing giants Microsoft Corporation and IBM Corporation also are soaring into the cloud computing market. Recognizing the needs of both industry and government to make the most of their resources, the companies recently unveiled a variety of new offerings, including Microsoft’s software-as-a-service strategy and IBM’s consulting and implementation services.

Microsoft’s Windows Azure is the cloud-based service foundation of its Azure Services Platform, a platform that will help developers build the next generation of applications that will span from the cloud to the enterprise data center.

A recent network defense training exercise brought together personnel from the U.S. Defense Department and teams from 15 nations to run through scenarios focused on cybersecurity and cyberdefense. A key theme of the workshop was building bridges between department personnel and their overseas counterparts while focusing on network defense.

Held in late October at the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Nebraska University Center for Information Assurance, the 2008 International Cyber Defense Workshop (ICDW) was a three-day event of classroom instruction combined with hands-on experience that featured information sharing between U.S. government and multinational personnel.

The large international contingent marks a distinct change between this year’s workshop and previous events, says Mark Hall, director of information assurance policy and strategy for the deputy assistant secretary of defense for information and identity assurance (DASD-IIA), Washington, D.C. All of the teams had the option to send personnel to Omaha, but because of time and travel constraints, the event also was structured to allow online participation. Although he is not at liberty to name the participating nations, he divulges that they came from Europe, Asia and Latin America.