Air Force agents tackle security

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2001/0521/mgt-air-05-17-01.asp

BY George I. Seffers 
05/21/2001 

The U.S. Air Force for the first time has co-located special agents
with a major command in an effort to defend military Web sites against
hacker attacks.

Two cybercrime agents from the Air Force Office of Special
Investigations (AFOSI) are now co-located at the Air Force Materiel
Commands Network Operation and Security Center at Wright-Patterson Air
Force Base, Ohio. The Air Force is considering co-locating agents with
other organizations with high-value networks, officials said.

The Materiel Command owns five Web sites among the Defense Departments
most frequently scanned or probed networks by cyberintruders seeking
illegal access. The sites are targets because of a heavy focus on
technology research.

For instance, the Air Force Research Laboratory, which falls under the
Materiel Command, develops technology for information warfare tools,
air and space vehicles, sensors and munitions.

"The bad guys are really after the information in the minds of our
scientists or in our networks, and those are the two fronts were
trying to protect," said Lt. Col. Dennis Keith, vice commander of
AFOSIs region one, which supports the Materiel Command.

The idea is to prevent network intrusions, identify potential threats
and offer an extra layer of protection to critical research networks,
said special agent Zachary Smith and others.

"We have a wider window on what may be the adversary threat to our
information resources," said Mel Clime, an AFOSI counterintelligence
program manager. The special agents "have got their finger on the
pulse of whats going on at the time instead of coming in after the
fact."



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