Infosec poses allied communication challenge

[InfoSec News <isn () C4I ORG>]

http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2000/0619/web-ops-06-21-00.asp

BY Dan Verton
06/21/2000

Information security remains the largest stumbling block facing the
United States and its military allies as they struggle to overcome
systems interoperability problems highlighted by the war in Kosovo,
senior Pentagon officials said Tuesday.

Air Force Brig. Gen. Charles Croom Jr., vice director of command,
control, communications and computer systems for the Pentagons Joint
Staff, said the war in Kosovo offered examples of how lack of planning
and restrictive security policies can hamper allied interoperability.

U.S. policy prohibits the transmission of NATO-classified information
across U.S. networks, so the United States had to build a separate
network to handle allied communications requirements, said Croom,
speaking at the TechNet expo in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the
Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association.

"It's absolutely appalling to me to have a policy like this," said
Croom, who served as the J-6 for the U.S. European Command during
Operation Allied Force. Handling NATO classified information was "the
largest and toughest issue of all," he said. "It costs a lot of money
to build a private network."

"We were spilling national secrets because we refused to use the tools
that were on our desks," said Croom, referring to instances when
personnel failed to activate their secure telephones when discussing
classified information.

Croom also said that daily communications security reports showed
serious security gaps. The reports were provided during Operation
Allied Force by the National Security Agency to determine how much
sensitive information was being divulged by U.S. forces during routine
communications across voice and data networks. Croom said the reports
indicated that simple background chatter "basically gave the order of
battle" for U.S. and allied forces.

Army Maj. Gen. Peter Cuviello said he does not think there is a
[technical] solution to the allied interoperability and security
problem. A "human decision" dictates what information can be stored
and transmitted across U.S. networks, he said.

However, Army Brig. Gen. Jerry McElwee, director of C4 for the U.S.
Joint Forces Command, said public-key infrastructure technology might
be a near-term solution for the allied interoperability challenge.
Joint Forces Command is working on a solution to "encrypt the
information [and] not the [network] link," McElwee said. "We think
that is the answer."

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