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by Terri J. Haney Director, SOCHE May 7, 2004 The battle rages. The attacks come fast and furious. The Air Force Institute of Technology’s students counter with deadly precision, stopping the enemy in its tracks. The scenario unfolds not on the traditional geographic battlefield, but rather on the landscape of cyberspace. AFIT students participated April 22 here in a one-of-a-kind educational event designed to prepare students to protect and defend the nation’s critical information systems. The Cyber Defense Exercise was born in 2000 of a joint effort between the National Security Agency and the U.S. Military Academy, pitting teams of students from each Department of Defense academy and graduate school against a “Red Team” comprised of government employees from the NSA, the U.S. Air Force’s 92nd Information Warfare Aggressor Squadron and the Army’s Land Information Warfare Activity. The undergraduate academies competed for the NSA Information Assurance Director’s Trophy. AFIT’s team, comprised solely of graduate students, participated for the second year straight year and again walked away with best score honors in the intensive four-day event. The AFIT team blended a unique mixture of operational experience and technical savvy to produce a cohesive group that seamlessly deterred the cyber warfare assaults. Tim Lacey, instructor for the AFIT team, stated that “our architecture did not depend on any one component to secure the network. We practiced defense in depth, utilizing a firewall to secure our boundary, but configuring each individual machine to withstand the most rigorous attacks. Every machine used encrypted filters that specified exactly how communications would take place. This strategy proved to create a very robust network.” “The exercise proved that security can be accomplished on a computer network,” said Maj. Brian Zeitz, commander of the 11-person CDX team. “However, that security comes with a price. That price is hard work and countless hours of dedication by well-trained cyber warriors.” Capts. Jeff Stanley and Mike Kleffman led the charge by implementing a game plan incorporating a Linux-based firewall and Internet protocol security that virtually locked out AFIT’s servers from the “Red Team.” Capt. Craig Long’s expertise in Windows 2000 and Maj. Scott Tobin’s mastery of the Exchange e-mail system prevented any unauthorized access. Second Lt. Jason Yee and Matt Spisak manned the intrusion detection services that detected any unauthorized access or attempts. Jon Sturak, 2nd Lt. Matt Sullivan, and 2nd Lt. Jason Thompson secured the databases and Web pages required to pass their information to headquarters. First Lt. Jamie Sharkey secured the team’s file transfer protocol server and also ensured the documentation was current. |
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