SECURING COMMUNICATIONS
T
he Army’s network has never been more important. We are more connected than we have ever been, and with the
network serving as the centerpiece of Army modernization, this connectivity stands to improve dramatically within the next few years. As we learn to lever- age this connectedness to provide our Soldiers with a decisive advantage on the battlefield, we must also ensure that the enemy does not gain access to the information that provides that advan- tage. That is the role of communications security (COMSEC).
COMSEC has become so ubiquitous that it may be taken for granted. We as an Army have come to expect our com- munications to be private, protected, and secure, often without even thinking about it. But as the Army’s communication capabilities continue to evolve, so, too, must the security environment in which they develop and mature.
LEGACY SYSTEM
SGT Justin Green (left) and PFC Michael Moore program an SKL to allow their radios to communicate securely between vehicles during a detail in Baghdad, Iraq, in 2009. The Army is developing the Common Load Device to augment and possibly replace the SKL and other legacy devices in the future key management infrastructure. (Photo by TSgt Johnny L. Saldivar, U.S. Air Force.)
Staying ahead of that curve is the purpose of Project Director (PD) COMSEC, which was chartered in Sep- tember 2010 under the Army’s Program Executive Office Command, Control, and Communications-Tactical (PEO C3T). PD COMSEC resulted from an April 2008 memorandum in which the then-Commanding General (CG) of the Communications-Electronics Com- mand, LTG Dennis L. Via (now Deputy CG and Chief of Staff, U.S. Army Ma- teriel Command), recommended that the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology (ASAALT) establish an O-6-level project management office within PEO C3T to centrally manage programs of record for the cryptographic modernization, key management, and overall life-cycle man- agement of Army COMSEC.
SYNCHRONIZING SOLUTIONS PD COMSEC’s role is to procure, sustain, and field capabilities that secure and encrypt data on the Army’s tactical network. There are more than 380 separate cryptographic and ancillary models in the field.
Equally important is establishing a cen- tral point from which program offices can interact with acquisition profession- als, so we can synchronize the multitude of capabilities and program offices that require COMSEC. Many program man- agers face the same COMSEC challenges; PD COMSEC can provide them with centralized expertise for a more efficient and effective solution.
For example, many systems engineers deem Type 1 encryption necessary on capa- bilities that require less than the top-secret protection it can provide. Type 1 encryp- tion qualifies a system or device as certified by the National Security Agency (NSA) for use in cryptographically securing clas- sified U.S. government information.
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PD COMSEC offers potentially less costly alternatives to Type 1 when lesser security levels are appropriate, based upon expected uses of the system.
We have also seen Army developers approach industry to solve COMSEC challenges for which viable solutions already exist. Some systems engineers may make their initial approach the sole solution to an issue. These individual, ad hoc approaches to COMSEC problems at times have prevented the COMSEC community from efficiently reaching its overall objectives.
Often, capabilities must be replaced within a short time because they were created without determining that they could function throughout the expected life of the host platform. This is both costly and inefficient.
PD COMSEC is working to prevent such outcomes. It offers knowledge that covers the broad scope of the Army’s COMSEC products, viable options, and specific timeframes in which a key will become outdated. In cryptography, a “key” is a parameter that determines the functional output of a cryptographic algorithm or cipher. The algorithm would be useless without a key. In encryption, the key is the process of changing plaintext into cipher- text, or vice versa during decryption.
MEETINGS OF THE MINDS As a relatively new organization, the PD understands that it must take a proactive approach to better synchronizing Army COMSEC. It has begun hosting semian- nual COMSEC Integration-Integrated Product Team forums, with the first taking place at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, in October 2011. The forums, held at various Army acquisition hubs, provide a place for subject-matter experts from vari- ous organizations to discuss COMSEC
Army AL&T Magazine
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