General calls for network utility, security balance

  • Published
  • By Chuck Paone
  • 66th Air Base Group Public Affairs
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. (AFNS) --  It's critical to find the right balance between the security and utility of an information technology network, the Air Force's chief information officer said here Aug. 13.

Speaking at a Hanscom Representatives Association luncheon, Lt. Gen. William T. Lord described that balancing act as one of "yin and yang," a term from ancient Chinese philosophy that describes the interdependence of seemingly contrary forces.

Security without utility is of little value; and utility without security is far too dangerous, General Lord said.

In harmony, however, the two provide an optimal operating environment, he said.

"We have to be able to put new devices -- shiny new objects, as we're sometimes accused of using -- on a network that doesn't care what the end-user device is," the general said.

The key is to build a network that is flexible and resilient enough to handle whatever it's being used for.

It's also important to protect not only the network, but also the work being done on the Internet, he said, calling for efforts to broaden security concepts.

While network defense used to be focused almost exclusively on building and enhancing firewalls, he said more needs to be done.

"The enemy vector used to be banging away at our firewalls; they're not any longer," General Lord said. "The enemy is banging away at our applications."

"We have over 19,000 (information technology) applications in the Air Force," he said, noting that Electronic Systems Center's IT Center of Excellence at Maxwell Air Force Base-Gunter Annex, Ala., examined about 200 of them. "All of them had over 50 vulnerabilities."

General Lord encouraged industry vendors to bring their proposed solutions for detecting and protecting against such vulnerabilities to ESC officials, noting that the center is where solutions can effectively be put into Air Force systems.

Industry officials should continue to "bring us your shiny new objects," he said. "But when you do, make sure you also tell us how we can integrate them onto an old infrastructure."

And if that's not possible, he said, tell Air Force officials how to upgrade the old infrastructure without having to lose capability during a transition.

"We need the network to be ready for today's modern applications, but frankly one can't slow up for the other," he said. "When they do lane expansion out on I-95 here, they're still doing it with two rush hours a day. We need to do the same thing."

General Lord also implored industry officials to focus on what the Air Force return on its IT investment will be.

"Here's that bright, shiny object and here's what you get out of it, or here's what you can give up with it -- manpower, legacy applications that we have to maintain, etc.," he said.

Determining what that return is can help solve a lot of problems, including the risk of running behind a rapidly evolving technology curve, he said, stressing that we need to avoid buying "yesterday's technology tomorrow."

"There are probably acquisition things that need to be fixed," he said. "There are process things that need to be fixed. There are resource management things we need to fix.

"But I think when you bring the return on investment with new combat capability, that can be the catalyst that begins to help us fix things," he said.