Transformation is much more alive among allies and coalition partners than it seems to be in the United States. Last year I listened to officials from nearly 20 foreign countries enthusiastically describe the extent to which they had transformed, or were transforming, their militaries to align with their perceptions of U.S. initiatives. A few months ago I mentioned this to a group of U.S. flag and general officers, and one commented—with support from others—“I hope you inoculated them against this kind of thinking.” What’s going on?

Although the U.S. Defense Department has lifted its ban on the use of thumb drives, the new rule greatly restricts their use and empowers unit commanders with final authority over the application of removable data storage devices. The ruling also reflects an ongoing effort by the military to change its operational culture by raising awareness of cybersecurity issues.

A founding member of NATO is weathering uncertain economic times by focusing on dual-use commercial and military technologies to energize its electronics and software industries. By launching a number of national initiatives supporting its defense sector, Portugal is leveraging its national information technology capabilities to provide its armed forces with modern communications and computer equipment. This effort also allows the nation to benefit from participation in multinational research and development programs.

Successfully managing homeland security activities requires government agencies to balance their efforts between different issues such as cyberspace, border protection, law enforcement and international cooperation. Good communications between all facets of federal, state and local government as well as the private sector is key to maintaining this equilibrium. But achieving ideal levels of coordination remains a challenge as officials struggle to counter external threats while attempting to restructure internal communications across organizational boundaries.

Submarines, as targets, have much in common with current U.S. adversaries such as insurgents, who prefer to blend in with their environments and rely on speed and stealth to conduct attacks. In a September 2009 podcast, the U.S. chief of naval operations, Adm. Gary Roughead, USN, extended this analogy by comparing the World War II Tenth Fleet’s antisubmarine warfare focus with the information operations focus of the recently reactivated U.S. Tenth Fleet.

Every day there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of people searching the Internet for classified military data and the identities of military personnel and their families. However, they are not hacking into sensitive databases or trying to breach Pentagon networks. They are simply looking in locations that are filled of this type of free information: social networking sites and personal web pages. There is one small group of these data seekers that you would want to be the very first to find this kind of online treasure. They are the Army Web Risk Assessment Cell (AWRAC).

Even as government 2.0 advocates hailed the U.S. Defense Department's newly framed social media policy upon its announcement, questions persisted over the value of such a policy in the wake of cybersecurity threats. But Sumit Agarwal, who was named deputy assistant secretary of defense (public affairs) for outreach and social media in January, says that with so many people using social media on their own, enforcing a closed posture on these tools may be as ill-advised as not doing so.

For those readers who have an on-going (i.e., contractor) relationship with a federal agency, this is the time of year to be considering what kind of proposal you'd like to give your client in case there is any end-of-fiscal year funding that needs to be spent by September 31st.

In February 2009 I cavalierly gave ambassador Negroponte a grade of "Incomplete" for failing to establish the prerogatives of the office and outgoing DNI Mike McConnell a "Gentleman's B" for his performance as the second Director of National Intelligence based on the following accomplishments: · FISA Modernization · Executive Order 12333 rewrite · National Cyber Security Initiative · Development of "A" Space · Security Clearance Reform · Intelligence Community (IC) joint duty program

After years of work in mitigating threats to the current version of networking protocols (Internet Protocol version 4- IPv4), network defenders can implement defense in depth by leveraging an array of capabilities like Firewalls, Intrusion Detection Systems, Intrusion Prevention Systems, Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tools and Unified Threat Management (UTM) tools. Capabilities have evolved in IPv4 security that enable all those functions to be hosted on singled Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) platforms. In the IPv4 world, the threats are still real and still require this defense in depth approach, but savvy network defenders have DPI and other tools at the ready to help mitigate these threats.