[ISN] Cybersecurity plagues Fort Hood

[InfoSec News]

Forwarded from: William Knowles <wk at c4i.org>

http://www.fcw.com/article89132-06-08-05-Web

BY Frank Tiboni
Published on Jun. 8, 2005 

LAS VEGAS - The Army's biggest base has a cybersecurity problem to
match its size.

Fort Hood, Texas, the largest Army base in the world and home of the
4th Infantry Division - the service's first digitized force - has a
huge information security problem, said Maj. Gen. Dennis Moran, the
Army's director of information operations, network and space in the
Office of the Chief Information Officer. He spoke June 8 at the Army
Information Technology Conference sponsored by the Army Small Computer
Program.

Some Army IT leaders think the best way to solve the information
security problem at Fort Hood is to operate IT as an enterprise. For
example, the base has 96 domains on the military's unclassified
network. Consolidating e-mail, servers and storage systems would
improve network management, operations and security, Moran said.

But Fort Hood technology workers resisted the consolidation idea. The
Army's IT leaders must resolve the tension between the Army's need to
operate IT as an enterprise and IT workers' unique requirements at
bases, Moran said.

Fort Hood technology officials have attempted to improve information
security by implementing products from Intrusion, for example, to
strengthen network and spyware defenses.

Fort Hood is the not the only major Army base with computer security
problems. Fort Campbell, Ky., home of the 101st Airborne Division -
the service's air assault helicopter force - was hacked in 2003, and
the Army spent millions of dollars to rebuild the fort's systems.

A top Army warfighting IT official echoed Moran's information
assurance concerns servicewide. "Security is a major problem," said
Chuck Pizzutelli, deputy program executive officer in the Army's
Program Executive Office for Command, Control, Communications
Tactical, which is part of the service's new
Communications-Electronics Lifecycle Management Command. "Half of the
IT architecture is a security overlay."

Pizzutelli also spoke at the conference.



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