The United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) mission
is to provide land, sea, and air transportation for the Department of
Defense (DOD). Because the defense transportation infrastructure is
tightly coupled with the commercial transportation industry, defense
computer systems must be closely linked to their commercial counterparts.
This linkage opens many new avenues of attack against DOD systems; mitigating
this increased risk of attack has been a focus of MITRE staff at USTRANSCOM.
MITRE staff located at USTRANSCOM helped establish the Defensive Information
Operations Center (DIOC) and helped design and deploy an integrated
state-of-the-art information protection architecture that includes seven
perimeter firewalls, six intrusion detection systems, a periodic vulnerability
assessment capability, and around-the-clock computer emergency response
capability. MITRE serves as lead security engineer on all systems that
are centrally managed by the DIOC.
In 1997, a penetration test team in a national exercise was detected
as it probed the USTRANSCOM systems. DIOC personnel detected the probe
during a routine review of firewall audit data. Because of MITRE's success,
it now plays a critical role in protecting all of the USTRANSCOM information
systems. As USTRANSCOM expands its information security focus to its
Component Commands--Air Mobility Command, Military Traffic Management
Command, and Military Sealift Command--MITRE security engineers are
working to ensure continued superior information protection throughout
USTRANSCOM.
Sponsor: Lt. Col. Kim Durr, US Army, Chief, Information System Security
Branch.
