An official website of the United States government
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Cyber safety top priority at Fairchild

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Connie L. Bias
  • 92nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. --  "Don't take candy from a stranger."

This is the phrase Maj. Pamela Woolley, 92nd Communications Squadron commander, used to explain how computer users should respond to Internet and computer safety ... Keep yourself safe and stay on the lookout for trouble.

Fairchild's Cyber Security Awareness Day briefing Aug. 29 focused on this theme, sharing computer knowledge and safety lessons through mass briefings throughout the day.

"We rely on computers; we place a lot of information on them," said Major Woolley. "That provides a perfect opportunity for the adversary to get a hold of that information and use it against us."

The major went on to say that attempted cyber attacks are on the rise at Fairchild and throughout the U.S. Transportation Command, hitting home the point that "bad guys are out there. They're listening to your phone calls, reading what you throw in the trash, and surfing for the information you put in your e-mail, on your websites and on your network drives."

Before you think we've reached doomsday, though, rest assured there are precautions and security procedures available to both home and work computers that will considerably lower the chances of outside network infiltration.

For government computers, many of these precautions are mandatory. For instance, removal media (such as USB devices, CDs or DVDs) must be properly safeguarded and stored appropriately, to include a safe if they contain classified material. Similarly, only PDAs issued by the government are the only ones authorized for government work use, and PDA users are not authorized to sync it to the network using wireless capability.

"The biggest issue is, there's probably government information on that device," said Michael Beribe, 92nd Air Refueling Wing information assurance manager. "You might have phone numbers of personnel you work with, maybe some other personal information. PDAs are a high-theft item, and that information could be compromised if it gets stolen."

Operations security is also crucial, and many operational details go out over our computer systems. Even posting unclassified information on the Internet can turn into a classified-information compromise.

"Eight percent of information about our operations is given up through essentially legal, unclassified means when people are ignoring proper safety procedures," said Herb Henderson, wing OPSEC program manager. "Everyone (at Fairchild) has sensitive information - unclassified bits of information that fit together to make a whole ... If everyone just put one piece of unclassified, sensitive information on your account and put everyone's together, we'd for sure have secret, if not top secret, information about Fairchild and our mission here."

The final important safety step the briefing covered was protecting information, both your own and the information of others that has been entrusted to you. E-mails and saved files including privacy information need to be encrypted, and only released to those with a need to know. Computer users can also protect themselves by staying on the lookout for phishing scams, which include requests for personal information.

Protect yourself and mission information, be on the lookout and don't fall for the adversary's scams. Or, as Major Woolley analogizes, "Don't take candy from a stranger."