Armed with Science | Tag Archive

Investing In Science To Focus On Innovation

Filed under Cyber Security by jtozer on May 12, 2013 at 7:14 am {no comments}

The acting assistant secretary of defense for research and engineering said that to meet the Defense Department’s 21st century security objectives, its science and technology funding will focus on innovation and industry.

In remarks at the National Defense Industrial Association’s 14th annual science and engineering technology conference, Alan Shaffer said mitigation, affordability and surprise technology lay the foundation for the DOD’s science and technology commitments.

Shaffer noted a rise in the commons known as technology enablers that include space, cyberspace and the oceans. “These are the places that no one owns and yet enable all our operational systems,” he said.

In electronic warfare, Shaffer explained, the United States has enjoyed pre-eminent electronic detection systems with its allies, but now must maintain balance in the electromagnetic spectrum for its systems to operate.

“Increasingly, a space communications layer is vulnerable to being jammed,” he said. “Space is contested. Space is no longer assured — nobody owns cyber, but it certainly will [affect] how we’re thinking about the world.”

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There’s Space In Space For Data Security

Filed under Cyber Security, Space by jtozer on April 30, 2013 at 7:12 am {no comments}

Committed to promoting safety and transparency in the space domain, U.S. Strategic Command maintains a registry of tens of thousands of man-made objects in space and shares the information freely with anyone who seeks it through a command-run website.

Air Force Space Command, recognizing that collisions could damage orbiting satellites and cause more space junk, started the database as a pilot program before turning the project over to Stratcom in 2010, said Air Force Col. Lina Cashin, Stratcom’s division chief for space, cyber and deterrence policy and security cooperation.

The project, which involves regular tracking of old rocket bodies, debris and about 1,000 active satellites, has become one of Stratcom’s most universally popular products, Cashin said.

Space-Track.org has 85,000 account holders in 185 countries.

In addition to providing basic satellite catalog data to all account holders, Stratcom provides more advanced data services on request. The command also has agreements in place with 35 commercial companies to expedite information-sharing, and hopes to enter similar agreements with space-faring nations to better support their space operations, Cashin said.

Space situational awareness is crucial to Stratcom’s efforts to understand what is going on in space and to cope with the increasing amount of space debris, she explained.

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The Strategically Critical Cyber Airman

Filed under Cyber Security by jtozer on April 21, 2013 at 7:33 am {no comments}

Chief Master Sgt. Linus Jordan, Air Force Space Command, command chief, discusses the role of airmen as a strategically critical professional Cyber force for the nation during a panel discussion at Cyber 3.1 in Colorado Springs. (Air Force photo by Duncan Wood )

Cyber airman development became the focus of discussion at Cyber 1.3 in Colorado Springs as Chief Master Sgt. Linus Jordan, command chief, Air Force Space Command, addressed space and cyber industry leaders at the conference prior to official opening of the 29th National Space Symposium.

Jordan, and a civilian aerospace leader, were participants in a moderated panel discussion that encouraged audience participation via e-mail.

The interactive forum quickly moved through topics including youth interest in an evolving cyber culture, common talent pool recruitment considerations, challenges of long-term development of a professional cyber force, and the critical roles of cyber-trained airmen.

Jordan invested in developing cyber airmen, both as command chief for the Air Force major command, and as a father of an airman in the cyber operations career field.

He challenged common assumptions that people fall into only the popular categories of digital native or digital immigrant. Jordan offered a third category: the digitally disadvantaged.

“There are demographics in our country where young people, or people of any age, may not have had the opportunity – educationally or economically – to be exposed to technology…to have the opportunity to use and leverage technology.”

“Just because someone was born into an era, doesn’t mean they experienced what that era was all about, “said Jordan.

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Air Force ‘Harnessing The Right Technology’

Filed under Cyber Security, STEM by jtozer on March 4, 2013 at 7:47 am {no comments}

The Air Force Space Command commander announced implementation steps in the Air Force’s efforts to heighten the Air Force‘s mobile operational potential of its airmen and the real-time functionality of its executives.

The first stage of distribution of mobile devices is focused on delivering approximately 10,000 devices.

“We are providing tools to enhance operational capabilities for our airmen,” Gen. William L. Shelton said, the Air Force Space Command commander. “Harnessing the right technology from both the public and private sectors plays an important role in these efforts.”

As a part of its plans to improve mobile communications, all Air Force major commands were notified last month of an initial operational capability rollout that includes mobile solutions for smart phone and tablet users. The program represents an element of an integrated and collaborative effort across the Air Force and the Department of Defense.

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Where DARPA Is Going, They Don’t Need Passwords

Filed under Cyber Security, STEM, Technology by jtozer on February 27, 2013 at 7:43 am {no comments}

This…doesn’t seem like the ironclad system one ought to have to secure passwords. That’s about as secure as a grocery list. (Graphic from DARPA)

In the world of network cyber security, the weak link is often not the hardware or the software, but the user.

Passwords are often easily guessed or possibly written down, leaving entire networks vulnerable to attack. Mobile devices containing sensitive information are often lost or stolen, leaving a password as the single layer of defense.

DARPA’s Active Authentication program is addressing this problem by adding additional ways to validate a user’s identity beyond the password based on user behavior. The program focuses on the development of new types of behavioral biometrics focused on the user’s cognitive processes—usage patterns or habits of individuals that, in combination, can serve as an online fingerprint and identity check.

The program’s initial thrust developed tools to protect desktop workstations–an effort that continues. Active Authentication begins a second, parallel thrust using biometrics to secure mobile devices using apps, sensors and other resources unique to these platforms.

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Smart Phone Charging Increases Cyber Threat

Filed under Cyber Security, Technology by jtozer on February 21, 2013 at 7:43 am {no comments}

Smart phone owners with access to government computers in South Korea have rapidly become the number one group of cyber security violators at Yongsan Garrison, South Korea. (Photo by Capt. James Williams III, NETCOM)

Smart phone owners with access to government computers in South Korea have rapidly become the number one group of cyber security violators in the country.

Over a recent seven-day period, the Korea Theater Network Operations Center detected 129 cyber violations caused by smart phones alone. Most of the perpetrators did not realize they had done anything wrong.

“The main problem is that people are using their government computers to charge their phones with USB cables,” said Lt. Col Mary M. Rezendes, 1st Signal Brigade operations officer-in-charge. “They don’t realize that computers recognize their phones as hard drives and that their software puts our network at risk.”

The Army‘s information assurance policies, found in Army Regulation 25-2, prohibit the use of USB devices on its networks. Before being granted access to Army networks, users are required to take cyber security training. They also sign a user agreement that states that they will not use USB devices on government computers.

“Cyber security is at the top of the list of our priorities and we must hold those accountable for violating the Army’s policies,” Rezendes said.

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DOD Develops Cyberspace Rules of Engagement

Filed under Cyber Security, Featured, STEM, Technology by glenn.selby on March 23, 2012 at 8:25 am {no comments}

By Cheryl Pellerin
American Forces Press Service

Whether by land, sea or air, Defense Department leaders have long crafted rules of engagement to determine how, where and when forces can attack the enemy. They expect soon to complete the same for their newest domain: cyberspace, the assistant secretary of defense for global strategic affairs said today.

“We are working closely with the Joint Staff on the implementation of a transitional command-and-control model for cyberspace operations” while reviewing existing rules of engagement, Madelyn R. Creedon told the House Armed Services Committee’s subcommittee on emerging threats and capabilities.

Teresa M. Takai, DOD’s chief information officer, and Army Gen. Keith Alexander, commander of U.S. Cyber Command, joined Creedon at the hearing.

“This interim framework,” Creedon told the panel, “will standardize existing organizational structures and command relationships across the department for the application of the full spectrum of cyberspace capabilities.”

Describing DOD’s strategies for operating in cyberspace, Creedon said the department maintains more than 15,000 network enclaves and 7 million computing devices in installations around the globe.

“DOD continues to develop effective strategies for ensuring the United States is prepared for all cyber contingencies along the entire spectrum,” she added, “from peace to crisis to war.”

In times of fiscal constraint, Creedon said, DOD also is taking advantage of efficiencies provided by information technology advances.

“The department has been working around the clock, often in close cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies,” she said, to protect the nation from cyber threats that include the theft of intellectual property, as well as damage to the defense industrial base, the economy and national security.

The department hit a “significant milestone” last July with the release of its first strategy for operating in cyberspace, Creedon said. The document builds on President Barack Obama’s International Strategy for Cyberspace and the DOD Quadrennial Defense Review, and guides the department’s military, business and intelligence activities in cyberspace in support of national interests, she said.

The DOD works closely with colleagues in the departments of Homeland Security, Justice, State, Treasury, Commerce and other agencies, she added, and pursues bilateral and multilateral engagements to enhance security and develop norms of behavior in cyberspace.

Takai told the panel that DOD’s $37 billion information technology budget request for fiscal year 2013 includes a range of IT investments, including $3.4 billion for cyber security efforts to protect information, information systems and networks against known cyber vulnerabilities.

It also includes $182 million for Cyber Command for cyber network defense, cryptographic systems, communications security, network resiliency, workforce development, and development of cyber security standards and technologies department-wide.

Among efforts to improve effectiveness and efficiency, Takai explained, “is consolidation of the department’s IT infrastructure, networks, computing services, data centers, application and data services, while simultaneously improving the ability to defend that infrastructure against growing cyber threats.”

Her office is leading the implementation of the initiatives, the chief information officer added, “but it is important that we work closely with the services, Joint Staff and U.S. Cyber Command to more aggressively modernize our overall information systems.”

A pillar of that modernization is a move to a single, joint network architecture, Takai said, allowing DOD and Cyber Command better visibility into network activity and better defense against cyber attacks.

Individually, she said, the services and agencies have taken action to better position the information enterprise and security posture.

The department has made significant progress in several areas, Takai said. One effort involved deploying a modular system called a host-based security system that enhances situational awareness of the network and improves the ability to detect, diagnose and react to cyber intrusions.

“We’ve also taken the lead in assessing the risk of the global supply chain to our critical information and communications technology,” Takai added, and has instituted a successful defense industrial base cyber security and information assurance program.

Alexander said cyber defense requires contributions not only from DOD, but from Homeland Security, the FBI, and the Defense Information Systems Agency — “all key partners in helping us do our cyber mission.”

Cyber space is becoming more dangerous, he added.

“The intelligence community’s worldwide threat brief to Congress in January raised cyber threats to just behind terrorism and [nuclear] proliferation in its list of the biggest challenges facing the nation.”

The task of assuring cyberspace access, the general said, “has drawn the attention of our nation’s most senior leaders over the last year and their decisions have helped to clarify what we can and must do about developments that greatly concern us.”

Cyber Command is specifically charged with directing the security, operation and defense of DOD’s information systems, he added, “but our work and actions are affected by threats well outside DOD networks … threats the nation cannot afford to ignore.”

Dangers are not something new in cyberspace.

“Nation-state actors in cyberspace are riding a tide of criminality,” the general said. “Several nations have turned their resources and power against us and foreign businesses and enterprises, even those that manage critical infrastructure in this country, and others.”

For the panel, Alexander described five key areas Cyber Command is working on:

– Building the enterprise and training the force;
–Developing a defensible architecture;

–Getting authorities needed to operate in cyberspace;

–Setting the teamwork properly across U.S. government agencies; and

–Creating a concept of operations for operating in cyberspace.

“I think we’re making progress,” Alexander said, “but … the risks that face our country are growing faster than our progress and we have to work hard on that.”

Check out the Defense.gov special on Cyber Security.

TEDxMonterey Talk: The Open World by Dr. Sujata Millick [VIDEO]

Filed under Cyber Security, Education & Culture, Policy, Videos by Carla Voorhees on May 24, 2011 at 11:50 am {one comment}

Sujata Millick is a visiting researcher at Hewlett-Packard Labs in Palo Alto, CA, where she is examining public-private approaches to cyber security and sustainable IT. She is on assignment from the Department of Navy’s Office of Naval Research, where she recently served as the Deputy Director of Research. Sujata’s TEDxMonterey talk focused on painting a new picture of the world we live in, taking us from the industrial age to the information age while asking provocative questions along the way. (more…)