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Show H;::top- A- July 27, 2000 Fire flight Photo by Senior Airman Russ Martin 30 Hercules, from the Cheyenne, Wyo. Air National Guard, winds down its engines after landing here Monday. Six AN G three from Charlotte, N.C.ANG and three from the Cheyenne ANG flew in Monday to augment ForA C-- 1 est Service firefighters cur- rently battling blazes in Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and Colorado. The National Interagency Coordination Center in Boise, Idaho, activated the 1 30s because the civilian contractor fleet of tankers is stretched to meet the ongoing fire suppression needs in the West The C-- 30s belong to the Air National Guard, but C-- 1 the equipment to drop the fire retardant installed in the aircraft belongs to the For- est Service. time to look over these topics and become familiar with them, said John Gilchrist, base webmaster with the 75th Communications Squadron. Most importantly, everyone needs to stop at the 'Security Awareness Training Education section and take the time to do the training, understand the information and take the test According to Gilchrist, Gen. Lester Lyles, AFMC commander, issued 13 initiatives to all AFMC bases to improve by TSgt. Timothy Trager Public Affairs NCOIC V The Air Force has always been on the front line of the technological revolution. Now that the information age has pulled it into cyberspace, information assurance is the primary weapon on the cyber battlefield. Information assurance is defined by DoD Directive as information operations that protect and defend information and information systems by ensuring their availability, integrity, authentication, confidentiality and This includes providing for the restoration of information systems by incorporating protection, detection and reaction capabilities. Accomplishing our mission is increasingly dependent on timely, accurate and secure information. Operating within this paperless, convenient and sometimes instant realm takes discipline to keep it safe and swinging in ... pur direction. This is information assurance.. information to one from another communiPassing cating has become complicated and the avenues numerous. ;While we have cordless phones, cell phones, the Internet, the base radio system, pagers, video teleconferencing and satellite communications, most use the base network that includes the intranet and system. Considering the network as a weapon system, as well as its capabilities and vulnerabilities, is a large step in the right direction. The old saying a chain is only as strong as the weakest link applies here. If we dont embrace the vulnerabilities of our network, the consequences could be devastating. But with a little effort and awareness, we can tip the scales back toward capability. This is information assurance. "The value of the networks is not lost to our adversaries, said Lt Gen. William J. Donahue, director of communications and information at the Pentagon, in an Intercom magazine article.; ?The network is a weapon system and we need to treat it as such. Any complex weapon system has vulnerabilities and the network is no exception. He also wrote that we must guard the network with the same rigor and tenacity as exhibited by Security Forces personnel at our front gates. This is information assurance. If the network is a weapon system, then education is the countermeasure for protecting it. The Air Force dedicated February as Information Assurance month with the theme Information Assurance in the New Millennon-repudiatio- i 4- - Vi Vs a ; Hill and the 75th Communication Squadron are work- ICNOWi. i i 9 4 Each week, information was disseminated pertaining to its theme. Week one identified success stories, pron fessional development and individuals that make assurance work at theunit level. Week two focused Hill AFB 5-d- ay if I : , nium. . IA. .. Hj'n, ,, t; L,Si ' ing very hard to stay ahead of the going pace with these interest items, and were doing very well, Gilchrist said. The 13 items are complex and range from installing vendor patches (small programs that update or fix existing programs) to complying with ACMs (the Air Force Information Warfare Centers Computer Emergency Response Team memo) . There is also work on firewalls, virus scans and continuing issues like monitoring net traffic. Complying with the 13 items is a challengebut we are well on our way, said Gilchrist This is information assurance. I think one of the biggest problems right now is the k amount of related that circulates the base each day, said Lisa Fresques, network administrator for the Ogden ALC Command Section. If we werent so attuned to receiving jokes, cartoons and junk nobody would open a virus like the recent life stages virus because it would stick out as an oddity instead of a common-everyda- y occurrence. The World Wide Web poses its own set of problems, but a good rule ofthumb is if youre not willing to let Saddam Hussein read the information that youre intending to dont put it there. The World Wide post on the Web Web is just that, it is available to anyone with a computer and a phone line. The Public Affairs offices on base are available to advise webmasters on web page security and policy issues before pages are launched onto the World Wide Web. This is information assurance. Although other electronic equipment isnt used as much or by as many people as the computer, we shouldnt forget it in the information assurance process. We need to remember not to use our government or personal cell phones to relay sensitive or command and control information critical to our mission. Cell phones may be one of the easiest pieces of equipment to eavesdrop on. Simple modifications to common scanners can easily tap into the cell phone frequencies. This is information assurance. The information we use every day in the Air Force is the absolute nucleus of every thing we do to accomplish the mission. Its that important to protect Thats information assurance. , non-wor- vr,-- ' e-m-ail infor-matio- 1 ') n. . ; e-m-ail e-m- Photo and design by Tech. Sgt Timothy Trager on other equipment in the communication spectrum. Often information assurance is limited to traditional computer networks instead of the full spectrum of service voice, data and video. Week three outlined characteristics we should all demonstrate while using the network weapon system and the mission it supports. The last week was devoted to protecting the network against those who would seek the recognition of their peers by breaking into our systems or instigating computer viruses. If we use our own network to educate ourselves on each of these topics, our network would be armor-plateThis is information assurance. The network is loaded with computer-base- d training intended to raise information assurance awareness. If you go to the AFMC homepage, find the AFMC help center and type information assurance, youll get 633 results. On the Hill homepage, you can navigate to the Intranet, and the third topic box down from the top labeled ComputerNetworkInternetWeb Issues has seven sites devoted to information assurance. Everyone thatuses acomputer on base should take the d. weather outlook Omny.airfield-ops.hil- , af.milosWiveatii8r l. U ' 959 High 709 Low 979 High 71 9 Low Partly cloudy Partly cloudy 95Q High 69Q Low 94s High 689 Low 95s High 67s Low to Partly cloudy with afternoon mountain with thunderstorms thunderstorms Partly mostly cloudy a chance of isolated Partly sunny |