[iwar] [fc:Cadets.Defend.Electronic.Networks.in.4-Day.Network-Defense.Exercises]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2002-05-15 17:53:43


Return-Path: <sentto-279987-4665-1021510346-fc=all.net@returns.groups.yahoo.com>
Delivered-To: fc@all.net
Received: from 204.181.12.215 [204.181.12.215] by localhost with POP3 (fetchmail-5.7.4) for fc@localhost (single-drop); Wed, 15 May 2002 17:56:07 -0700 (PDT)
Received: (qmail 3171 invoked by uid 510); 16 May 2002 00:52:30 -0000
Received: from n26.grp.scd.yahoo.com (66.218.66.82) by all.net with SMTP; 16 May 2002 00:52:30 -0000
X-eGroups-Return: sentto-279987-4665-1021510346-fc=all.net@returns.groups.yahoo.com
Received: from [66.218.66.95] by n26.grp.scd.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 16 May 2002 00:52:26 -0000
X-Sender: fc@red.all.net
X-Apparently-To: iwar@onelist.com
Received: (EGP: mail-8_0_3_2); 16 May 2002 00:52:25 -0000
Received: (qmail 65578 invoked from network); 16 May 2002 00:52:25 -0000
Received: from unknown (66.218.66.218) by m7.grp.scd.yahoo.com with QMQP; 16 May 2002 00:52:25 -0000
Received: from unknown (HELO red.all.net) (12.232.72.152) by mta3.grp.scd.yahoo.com with SMTP; 16 May 2002 00:52:25 -0000
Received: (from fc@localhost) by red.all.net (8.11.2/8.11.2) id g4G0rhB15002 for iwar@onelist.com; Wed, 15 May 2002 17:53:43 -0700
Message-Id: <200205160053.g4G0rhB15002@red.all.net>
To: iwar@onelist.com (Information Warfare Mailing List)
Organization: I'm not allowed to say
X-Mailer: don't even ask
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL3]
From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
X-Yahoo-Profile: fcallnet
Mailing-List: list iwar@yahoogroups.com; contact iwar-owner@yahoogroups.com
Delivered-To: mailing list iwar@yahoogroups.com
Precedence: bulk
List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:iwar-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Wed, 15 May 2002 17:53:43 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [iwar] [fc:Cadets.Defend.Electronic.Networks.in.4-Day.Network-Defense.Exercises]
Reply-To: iwar@yahoogroups.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Cadets Defend Electronic Networks in 4-Day Network-Defense Exercises

By MICHAEL ARNONE, Chronicle of Higher Education, 5/10/02
<a href="http://chronicle.com/free/2002/05/2002051001t.htm">http://chronicle.com/free/2002/05/2002051001t.htm>

Students at the U.S. military academies and the Naval Postgraduate
School are learning first-hand the value and challenge of protecting
computer networks. Last month, the students sparred with
computer-security experts from the U.S. military and government in the
second annual Cyber-Defense Exercise, jointly sponsored by the
Department of Defense and the National Security Agency. 
For four days, 30 cadets and graduate students defended networks they
had built against attacks by experts from the security agency, the U.S.
Air Force, and the U.S. Army. Experts from Carnegie Mellon University
acted as referees and also played the third-party users of the systems
who had experienced the effects of the attacks. 
Students from the Naval Postgraduate School, the U.S. Military Academy
in West Point, N.Y., and the U.S. Naval Academy operated networks that
sustained slight damage, said Wayne J. Schepens, an
information-systems-security engineer at the National Security Agency.
He is an NSA Visiting Fellow at West Point, and he supervised the
information-security exercise, which he and faculty members at the other
academies helped design. Cadets from the U.S. Air Force Academy and the
U.S. Coast Guard Academy fared worse but still did a good job overall,
he said. 
The students set up computer networks and had to guard the information
in them and the services they hosted, such as e-mail and Web sites, said
J.D. Fulp, a lecturer in computer science at the Naval Postgraduate
School who was the program manager for the institution's participation
in the exercise. The students had to detect intrusions, recover lost
information and capabilities, and prevent future attacks. 
Each team in the competition won points for successfully repelling
attacks and lost points for permitting intrusions to its network. For
the second year, the Naval Postgraduate School earned the most points
but West Point was declared the official winner. The postgraduate school
was ineligible to win because its students have more experience than the
undergraduate cadets, Mr. Fulp said. 
The Naval Postgraduate School, the Air Force Academy, and West Point
participated in last year's competition, Mr. Fulp said. Cadets from the
Coast Guard Academy and the Naval Academy joined the exercise this year.
Representatives from the United States Merchant Marine Academy observed
the exercise this year, and the academy is considering joining in the
future. 
The exercise was the final project for courses the cadets took this
semester, Mr. Schepens said. As a special project, Cadet Allen J.
Peplinski, a fourth-year student at West Point who is a computer-science
major, designed the networks that all the teams built. The students from
the Naval Postgraduate School participated in the exercise on top of
their regular course work, Mr. Fulp said. 
The Public Key Infrastructure Program Management Office at the
Department of Defense supplied each institution with about $125,000 to
buy off-the-rack hardware and software to create identical networks,
said Mr. Schepens. The students then customized and hardened the
systems, changing user-access settings to the most restrictive levels
and installing software patches to make the networks less vulnerable to
attack. 
Protecting computer networks is a new front in the future of military
conflict, said John Arquilla, an associate professor of defense analysis
at the Naval Postgraduate School who is a consultant to the RAND
Corporation. He is a co-author of Networks and Netwars: The Future of
Terror, Crime, and Militancy, a book on cyberterrorism. 
Academic experts in information technology and related fields are
probably more aware of the threat of Internet-based attacks than is the
military, Mr. Arquilla said. Academic studies and exercises, such as the
Cyber-Defense Exercise, can highlight issues from which the military
could learn, he said.

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Tied to your PC? Cut Loose and
Stay connected with Yahoo! Mobile
http://us.click.yahoo.com/QBCcSD/o1CEAA/sXBHAA/kgFolB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

------------------
http://all.net/ 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ 



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : 2003-08-24 02:46:32 PDT