CHANGI NAVAL BASE, Singapore – The first annual Cyber Endeavor ended Aug. 19 with positive reviews and requests for a longer workshop at the Changi Command and Control Centre Changi Naval Base Singapore.
Cyber Endeavor is a new program under Pacific Endeavor 2011 which involves non-government organizations, national militaries across the Pacific Region, academic and industrial representatives. Focusing on "protecting information in a collaborative environment," the intent was an information sharing workshop to develop core competencies amongst the Multinational Communications Interoperability Program countries and entities.
“What we are trying to do in Cyber Endeavor is bring together [militaries, non-government organizations, academicians and technology industries]… for a week period and go in depth into the aspects of providing confidentiality, integrity and availability [to communications],” said Pat Lanthier, MCIP advisor.
During the next workshop, the 24 participants representing 19 countries and other organizations would be split into two teams and create a ‘sandbox.’
“Sandbox means you create a network and you let people come into it to break it, to fix it and of course, compete to break each other’s networks and fix them and so forth,” said Lanthier.
Using the information collected during the workshop helps hone a better network that will be resilient against outside cyber-attacks, carry signals reliably, and ensure a signal is available when it must be used. However, technology plays a large role in today’s communications efforts.
“What typically occurs in a disaster is that people show up with whatever they have with no coordination of communications capability,” said Lanthier. “That impacts command and control so things like foods that may be delivered in an airport aren’t distributed properly, security isn’t provided in the right places to do the right kinds of things. People aren’t evacuated in the right kinds of ways.”
“Communications is really the key to an emergency response,” he said.
To alleviate modern demands for communications technology, several industries showcased their equipment which can help in the next disaster.
“It’s the best time right now to bring in new technologies,” said Lanthier. “It’s about ideas and possibilities.”
Participants agreed. Cyber Endeavor was an instant hit in this year’s Pacific Endeavor 2011.
“It’s a very useful and informative workshop… I really enjoyed the workshop with other nations and sharing knowledge on the procedures they take,” said Lt. Mohammed Musthafa of the Maldives National Defense Force. “This is the first time, they’ve had a Cyber Endeavor workshop and I hope that next time, we would have a [larger exercise] along with the practical exercises.”
“I’m new to cyber, but the session was very good and the discussions held were very helpful in upgrading my knowledge,” said Sri Lanka Army Lt. Col. Deshika Makumbara. “I want to see more exercises.”
The session ended with promises of a bigger and better workshop for next year.
“I hope it has been a lot of good information, I hope that there’s been as much learning between the audience as there has been from the podium to the audience,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Justin Pickett, the US Pacific Command J615 director to the participants.
“We’ll just keep making it a bigger and better Cyber Endeavor each year.”
Pacific Endeavor is a U.S. Pacific Command initiative which provides participating countries a useful database and communications program. It’s goals help ensure that all countries are able to communicate with little to no problems when nations provide aid, personnel and supplies to help ease suffering in the wake of a natural disaster.