We all have a role Published May 3, 2011 By Col. Kimerlee Conner 21st Mission Support Group commander PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- The United States has the best trained, best equipped forces on earth. Our Air Force has the most sophisticated fighters and support aircraft, we have remotely piloted aircraft, the world's largest Navy, and the world's best Army. So, in a force-on-force war, who do you think would win? Our enemies know that it is unlikely they would be successful in a force-on-force conflict - we have a distinct advantage. Therefore, our enemies must think of other means to weaken us -- if they can't beat us force-on-force, how can they otherwise defeat us? They can attack that which is integrated into nearly every aspect of our military and our personal lives -- Technology -- communications and computer systems. We have iPads, smart phones, GPS, ATMs, computers, satellites, automated tracking systems, RPAs, and more. We have become increasingly dependent on our technology, we have become information junkies, and we are now dependent on instantaneous communications. Think about when the last time you took pen to paper and wrote a letter. I did that recently and was rewarded with a hand cramp -- seems it had been a while. Most everything I write now is through a keyboard. What is it that we can we do to protect our technology and therefore our communications systems? Airmen who have spent time on a crew understand the importance of working together as a team. One of the most distinct things about a crew is that in order to do our mission, everyone has to do their part. One distinct example is an E-3 AWACS crew -- the computer, communications, and radar technicians all have to do their job, and the flight crew has to put the aircraft in the right position. If any of these areas failed, they would be completely ineffective and could not conduct their mission. If one person failed, the whole crew failed. The same concept applies to how we protect our technology. As a force, we must embrace this same mentality when it comes to cyber systems. Careless acts by only one person can create vulnerability in our network and thus cause our mission to fail. We are all a part of a larger Air Force crew tasked with protecting our networks. Certainly you have been told this same story in a computer based training or had a briefing at a commander's call. Well, we have to keep sending the message, we are still having significant issues with computer and information security. It only takes one person - one lack of judgment to jeopardize our mission. During our recent ORI/UCI, we received several write-ups that addressed this issue. One write-up involved Privacy Act information (social security numbers) that was not properly destroyed. This could be very dangerous for someone whose SSN wasn't destroyed properly. We have all heard about identity theft. The issue doesn't stop there - ever heard of the Russian Business Network? They commit large scale cyber crime, specializing in personal identity theft for resale. So, the SSN that wasn't destroyed properly could have easily funded the RBN. They are responsible for child pornography, phishing, spam, malware, denial of service attacks, are linked to the Russian mafia, and are suspected of participation in the cyber attacks on Georgia in August 2008. Additionally, we had phishing/spear phishing emails opened by users, thereby downloading Trojans that allowed access to our network. Numerous instances of unauthorized software were found installed on government systems. Any one of these could have contained viruses, Trojans, and botnet/zombie software -- compromising our network. There were blatant instances of a failure to protect passwords -- there were instances of people writing their passwords on a sticky note and placing them next to their computer terminal. The Identity Theft Resource Center recorded 662 identity breaches for 2010. Of those breaches, there were more than 16 million SSNs, medical records, financial records, credit/debit card numbers, etc put at risk. 16 million. Just think of how much funding these breaches could have generated to support a billion dollar criminal industry. Identity protection is only one, very personal, aspect of protecting technology. You have all probably heard the phrase "loose lips sink ships." The same concept applies to protecting passwords, being cautious of the information we share on Facebook, Twitter, and otherwise protecting our networks. Can you imagine a day when you cannot use your work or home computer, your cell phone, your GPS or ATM? That is personal; imagine if for example we could not pass GPS information to our aircraft, or provide command and control information -- we could not prosecute our mission. Protecting our network is absolutely critical to our mission. We have leveraged technology as a major force multiplier -- but that door swings both ways. It only takes one member of our Air Force to open a phishing email, to forget to shred a list of SSNs -- to jeopardize our mission. We all have a major role in protecting our network. We depend upon you -- we depend upon each other -- to maintain constant vigilance and ensure our success.