NCS prepping 'gee-whiz' pilot

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0923/web-ncs-09-26-02.asp

By Dan Caterinicchia 
Sept. 26, 2002

The National Communications System is in the early stages of a Global
Early Warning Information System (GEWIS) pilot project in which
government and industry will examine the health and topology of the
Internet.

The pilot project will assess how well critical areas of the Internet
are performing worldwide, and then use that data to notify government,
industry or U.S. allies of an impending cyberattack or possible
disturbance, said Brenton Greene, deputy manager of NCS.

Those indicators will include looking at the performance of selected
government and industry e-commerce sites, as well as tools to identify
and detect worms or denial of service attacks, he said, adding that
the pilot project (also called the Global Cyber Early Warning
Information System) will not be ready for launch until next year.

"It's still early, but this is an idea whose time has come," Greene
told FCW during an interview at his office in Arlington, Va. "The more
we scratch at it, the more fascinating it gets."

NCS, which is co-managed by the White House and the Defense
Information Systems Agency, assists the president, the National
Security Council and federal agencies with their telecommunications
functions and coordinates the government's national security and
emergency preparedness communications. NCS includes the Government
Emergency Telecommunications Service and the Wireless Priority Service
in which government workers are given a code and are categorized for
priority access. These services are used in emergencies and responded
well following last year's Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The NCS also is working on two other pilot projects aimed at improving
the reliability and speed of the telecommunications and wireless
systems for first responders and other key personnel during a national
crisis or disaster.

The first is an emergency notification system that would use
Internet-based, wireless and other telecommunications to notify a "few
thousand key people" in the Washington, D.C., area during a national
disaster. That test would include the contact information of key
personnel and would attempt to reach them by the fastest method
available, Greene said.

The other NCS pilot project is aimed at establishing a backup dial
tone for key federal buildings, Greene said, adding that the agency is
in the "finalizing look at several technologies," including free space
optics, which uses high-bandwidth laser links between buildings'
backbones at close ranges.

Greene said he hopes to have those two pilots in limited release in
October or November.
 


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