Photo By Tech. Sgt. Nick Wilson | Staff Sgt. Gabriel Lopez, 509th Communications Squadron network technician, accesses...... read more read more
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WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE, Mo. - Airmen from the 509th Communications Squadron are preparing for an inspection next year by a team from the Defense Information Systems Agency as part of a Command Cyber Readiness Inspection from March 10-14.
The CCRI focuses on cyberspace capabilities and is used by U.S. Cyber Command to maintain secure connections to the Global Information Grid.
“It’s the Department of Defense’s inspection of our network security,” said Staff Sgt. Tyler Miller, 509th CS information assurance technician. “A CCRI could happen any time within three years, or if a hacker or intruder has gained access to our network.”
The inspection has four phases. The upcoming inspection in March will be phase three for the 509th CS.
“Phase one, two and three are all noticed inspections, increasing the amount of things they looked at each time,” Miller said. “The fourth phase is a no-notice inspection.”
The inspection is important to all participating Air Force installations because a failure could result in being cut off from Air Force Network by the Defense Information Services Agency.
“If outsiders get into our network, they can degrade services, shut off services or stop the mission,” said Tech. Sgt. Ezequiel Gomez, 509th CS NCO in charge of network infrastructure. “We’re in a culture of security and this inspection is about making sure that we are a secure network and that we are protected from losing information.”
The inspectors will look at all aspects of the network including physical security, communications security, network configurations, the security of network compliance and server health, to name a few.
“It’s a whole health inspection of the network,” Gomez said. “They’re going to ensure that we’re complying with all of the secure information technical information guides. Additionally, they’re going to check if we’re following all of the Air Force instructions regarding some operability items, as well to see if they’re running efficiently or not.”
To prepare for inspection, the 509th CS has invited a Scope Edge team to help ensure the communications network is up to speed. Scope Edge is an Air Force communication team that travels to Air Force bases around the world to look at the overall health of networks and ensure they are working in the most robust manner possible.
“We’ve also been holding weekly meetings for about a month now to go over technical orders and Air Force instructions that cover the whole scope of the inspection,” said 2nd Lt. Jace Pape, 509th CS officer in charge of client services. “We’re also doing some industry best practices and other things that can help us improve our operability on the network.”
Since the inspection will deal with every type of special interest system on base, many units other than the 509th CS will be involved. A couple examples are the 509th Medical Group and flying squadrons, which require specific hardware or software to do their job, Gomez said.
“This inspection does hit every network device,” Gomez said. “So every single central processing unit, every server that is located on this base at some point, if not logically touched, will be physically touched.”
| Date Taken: | 12.17.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 12.17.2013 09:59 |
| Story ID: | 118316 |
| Location: | WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE, MO, US |
| Web Views: | 101 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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