Cyber

In a little more than four months, the U.S. Army has made significant progress in its thrust to modernize its network for the warfighter. Following “a lot of introspection,” the Army is undergoing ”a wholesale shift” that already has generated two real changes, declares Lt. Gen. Bruce T. Crawford, USA, Army G-6 and chief information officer (CIO).

Amid the political scuffles on Capitol Hill about immigration, health care and budget legislation to keep the federal government open, cybersecurity is not necessarily one of the highest policy-making priorities. This must change, some lawmakers say. Cyber attacks, already plentiful and disastrous, will only increase in frequency and scale over time. The United States needs more protections and measures, especially at the federal level, according to some legislators.

Jack Finney’s science fiction classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers offered a frightening premise. In the novel, aliens in seed vessels descend to Earth, landing in a small California farming community. As the townsfolk sleep, these seeds replicate the earthlings and, by morning, replace them. The only discernible difference between the clones and their host bodies is that the clones lack emotion. In essence, the aliens have stolen the earthlings’ DNA, and the humans never saw it coming.

The idea of this happening is unimaginable—in the case of human bodies at least. However, one company replacing another company’s DNA then killing off the original entity is happening now in the invisible world of cyber.

Recent initiatives by the National Security Agency (NSA) have enabled alternatives to Type 1 security solutions by leveraging commercial technologies in a layered approach, thus saving time and money for classified programs. The Commercial Solutions for Classified (CSfC) Program provides solution level specifications called Capability Packages (CP) to deliver data security solutions using approved components from leaders in commercial technology. In the Data at Rest CP data protection can be accomplished by integrating an inner and outer layer of hardware and software encryption where a self-encrypting solid state drive is the inner layer and either a file encryption or software full disk encryption solution would be the outer layer.

Amid stunning digital attacks that have not only rocked countries around the globe but also targeted alliance forces, NATO is sharpening its resolve to serve as a cyber protector. A forthcoming Cyber Operations Center will incorporate cyber warfare into NATO’s defense operations. In addition, NATO’s Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence is boosting the organization’s cybersecurity-related research, exercises and instruction to meet the seemingly unending threats.

It goes without saying that technology plays a key role in military operations. The concern nowadays, however, is if technology is appropriately hardened from a cybersecurity standpoint. For the Army, this means taking a close look at supply chain management, according to one Army leader.

The government has to be a savvy consumer amid a risky cybersecurity atmosphere. And companies need to be able to back up the products that they are offering the government, Col. Bryan Stephens, USA, director, Cyber Focal, Army System of Systems Engineering and Integration, told SIGNAL Magazine in a recent interview. 

A new smart phone application is illustrating the devastation that war has on the smallest citizens of the world. Introduced last week by the Geneva, Switzerland-based International Committee of the Red Cross, the application, called Enter the Room, uses augmented reality to create an immersive experience for users to see how conflicts impact children. The organization claims that it is the first use of augmented reality in humanitarian aid.

U.S. Army officials are applying a streamlined acquisition process known as an IT box to offensive cyber technologies.

The IT box acquisition concept includes four sides: developing the capabilities requirement, determining development costs, analyzing sustainment and operations costs, and providing oversight and management of the product.

Maj. Gen. John George, USA, force development director, Office of the Army Chief of Staff G-8, told the the AFCEA Army Signal Conference in Springfield, Virginia, that the Army is focusing on the IT box concept pretty heavily.

Where some see challenges, others see opportunities. It sounds like a motivational poster, but that is exactly how researchers at the National Security Agency view the Internet of Things, or the IoT.

“We approach IoT a little differently than everybody else. Everybody’s talking about all the security problems. That’s certainly fair, but we look at IoT as an opportunity in terms of the security goals we can accomplish,” says George Coker, chief, Information Assurance Research Group, National Security Agency (NSA).