DoD lays out 2008 IT security priorities
Redteaming — modelling the enemy’s thought process — leads the way when it comes to defending communications lines; biometric control of military bases a major focus; other priorities include technologies to track terrorists and predict social outcomes of military engagement
The “If I were a terrorist” parlor game is out of fashion these days, but who ever knew the Department of Defense to follow trends? “It’s a whole different thing — that we haven’t done much of — to red-team how an adversary might use [information technology] and hackers” to attack the U.S. power grid, said John Young, the Pentagon’s director of defense research and engineering recently. Improving DoD’s ability to anticipate terrorist threats to its communications systems, Young said, would be among his top priorities in putting together the department’s 2008 budget request.
Officials at the DoD are particularly concerned about the extensive “reachback links” between military planners stateside and forward deployed troops. Such would make tempting targets to hackers who would get a double prize of overcoming America’s IT security while also possibly endangering troops at the same time. In addition, the ubiquity of small power sources and high performance sensors makes it likely that security could be compromised from unlikely areas by a terrorist breaching a DoD network by wirelessly hijacking an infantryman’s network connection.
Other DoD initiatives for 2008 include:
BULLET POINTS
Biometrics control of American military bases. “There have been instances with people that seek access to those facilities who … also have been involved with previous terrorist acts,” Jones explained
Technologies to tag, track, and locate suspected terrorists. “There [are] a lot of technology opportunities out there to look at very small devices or very unique aspects of individuals” that could help warfighters keep up with their movements, Jones added
Human, social, and cultural modeling technologies, including those that can help predict what reactions certain U.S. actions might draw from a local population during that phase of an engagement
Better technologies to link service weapons and sensors — like Aegis ships, Patriot missiles or Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft — to engage airborne targets. Sharing data between different platforms would enhance commanders’ abilities to shoot down airborne threats.
-read more in this Military.com report
