ATOMIZER
A cool $6.9 billion is burning a hole in the Navy's pocket - all earmarked to streamline its IT systems. Known as the Navy-Marine Corps Intranet, it's the biggest government IT contract ever awarded.
If connecting the Navy's 200 diverse onshore networks weren't tough enough, add floating ships to the mix and the project could hit rough waters. The offshore endeavor, called IT-21, is being handled internally. In three years, the Navy has networked two-thirds of its 316 ships via satellites and server farms. Now the Navy finds itself dealing with issues most corporations have faced for the better part of a decade: how to secure its network, how to prevent staff Web abuse (yep, porn is a problem), and how best to use wireless technologies. As Vice Admiral Richard Mayo, Navy CIO and director of space, information warfare, command, and control, says: "We're the ultimate wireless customer. We can't trail fiber, and we can't plug in." Here's a look at how an aircraft carrier hooks up.
The bigger the ship, the faster the connection. Aircraft carriers have the space to house larger satellite antennas - a combination of commercial and military hardware. Because most bandwidth is reserved for operational communications, troops connect to the Internet at speeds comparable to 56-Kbps dialup. But official communications within the battle group's WAN can run at speeds equivalent to a T1 line's, or at about 1.5 Mbps. Within a battle group, which contains eight ships and submarines, up to 20,000 emails are exchanged in a 24-hour period.
Network Centric Operations, a computerand radar system being developed by the Navy, links the data of various vessels in a battle group, allowing the ships to lock on the same target, even if some of them can't pick up the object on radar.
The Navy's onshore server farms - connected via receiving equipment on the command tower(aka "superstructure") - are protected by much of the same software used by corporate America: Norton AntiVirus, I-Gear, Mail-Gear, Intruder Alert, NetProwler, Raptor Firewall.They also use a bunch of other, proprietary stuff they're not talking about.
In 2001, there were at least 16,000 known attempts to hack the Navy's old networks. At least 400 intrusions were partially successful, and in 40 cases, intruders gained root access to a Navy network. In one instance, a network intruder went undetected for five days.
In a recent security test of the old networks, the Navy's whitehat hackers, known as the Red Team, used attack scripts to assault 8,000 computers. They found 100,000 vulnerabilities and points of entry. Currently, only 600 of the Navy's seats (workstations and the space they take up on the network) are behind firewalls on the upgraded network.
At any given time, an aircraft carrier might be toting some 2,000 desktop PCs. That number can swell by 500 laptops when the air wing - the full flying crew and its support staff - is on board. The laptops are usually Dells loaded with Windows NT 4.0. The crew, which can top out at about 5,000, must follow these steps to surf the Net:
- Log on to the ship's LAN.
- "Uplink to a satellite, via the Defense Satellite Communications System, Milstar communication, a UHF communication system, or a commercial sat fleet like Inmarsat and Intelsat.
3." Wait for the satellite downlinks through a Department of Defense teleport, hooking up with any one of the fleet's network operation centers around the world. The link goes to a Navy intranet operation center - in either Norfolk, Virginia, or San Diego.
Computers are sprinkled throughout the ship, wherever there's room and need. One typical spot?The library. During low side (when there are no security alerts or potential battles), the same usage rules apply as in the computer rooms. Personal Web and email use aren't encrypted, and the data is monitored by commercially available filtering and intrusion-protection apps. These programs might look for pics with lots of flesh (as in porn), as well as political terms and geographical details (directions to covert operations). If the software flags a communiqué or Web page, only then does the person who oversees the ship's Net access take a look.
A ship's server room can be any closet-sized space near the computer rooms. The Navy relies on Raytheon for security detail, WorldCom for wide-area network help, Cisco for routers, and Dell for computers, servers, and storage systems.
A few days before or during high side (times of combat), all communications relating to strategy and operations are encrypted and limited to about 200 computers. Even if you're in the preflight squadron room or the command tower, a ship's network is secured and no one can access the Internet or send external email. When it comes to Net access, it's the captain's call. Officers can IM one another through a customized version of IBM's Lotus Sametime.
Sailors whose duties don't require computers can log on in one of the ship's computer rooms (typically, there are three to five). A computer room contains 15 to 20 PCs and one sign-up sheet.Sailors usually reserve computer time days in advance, and their allotted access may be limited to half an hour.
- Checking in with spouses or children.
- "Scheduling doctor or auto-repair appointments.
- Brief Internet searches.
- Running a private business.
- Subscribing to mailing lists, which overburden the system.
- Viewing or downloading pornography. MUST READ
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