Navy weighs NMCI portal security

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2001/0528/web-nmci-05-30-01.asp

BY Bill Murray 
May 30, 2001 

The Navy is considering using one standard portal product that will
help control individuals access to applications the Navy will place on
its $6.9 billion intranet.

Users logging on to the Navy Marines Corps Intranet, which will tie
together on one network the Navys shore-based organizations, would
obtain access to the intranet using a common access card.

The Web-based portal product would replace the Navys costly effort to
develop a public-key infrastructure for all applications accessible
over NMCI. The portal product would require users logging onto the
network to rely on a common access card, which is inserted into a PC
Card reader, to access applications. Under this scenario, the portal
itself would be PKI-enabled, but the portal would work as a handshake
with the access card, verifying the card and reading what applications
the user has permission to access.

"I never have to PKI-enable the application" using the portal, said
Ron Turner, deputy CIO at the Navy for infrastructure, systems and
technology. "Thats something were looking at investing in heavily."

Without a Web-based portal product, the Navy would have had to develop
PKI for every application, a costly and time-consuming effort. The
Defense Department has required all services to PKI-enable all
applications by 2003, many of which are on legacy systems. Navy
officials believe the portal and access card will meet the DOD
guidelines.

Turner said that, from a CIO perspective, the Navy would like to have
one portal product, but he is not sure if the technology is available
yet.

The Navy hopes the first Web-based portal a so-called splash screen
that would push out software upgrades to onshore bases will be
available in June, said Capt. Chris Christopher, Navy deputy program
executive officer for IT. The splash screen will be a native
Extensible Markup Language portal built from the ground up.



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