CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. –
The 437th Airlift Wing commander has designated Nov. 18 as Cyber Security Awareness Day.
With a theme of "Shared Responsibility," this year's cyber training will stress that every Airman must be a computer network defender, or "Net Defender," and must take an active role in protecting the computer network.
The overall objective of the day will be to foster a robust cyber security posture throughout Charleston AFB. Each unit will be responsible for providing cyber security training briefings to their assigned personnel with training material provided by the 437th Communications Squadron.
The base computer network is a weapon system. It is a shared responsibility to ensure it stays secure from all potential adversaries. Simple practices, such as never plugging flash or thumb drives into government computers, help defend network security. Using flash and thumb drives is banned to prevent malicious software from being downloaded onto a computer and possibly forwarding the computer's information to unknown destinations.
The inherent risk in using universal serial bus, or USB, based flash thumb drives is caused by their potential to create a vulnerability which degrades the availability and confidentiality of the network weapon system.
Another serious challenge in the cyber domain is protecting personally identifiable information. PII encompasses any piece of information which can be used to trace an individual's identity, such as social security number, biometric data, address and home phone number.
A serious problem affecting the Air Force right now stems from personnel posting PII on social networking Web sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, but by simply changing the privacy settings on a Facebook account, it is exponentially harder to obtain PII.
To protect privacy on Facebook:
· Login
· Click "Settings," then "Privacy Settings"
· Under "Profile" select "Only Friends"
· Click "Save Changes"
To Protect Privacy on MySpace:
· Click "My Account"
· Under "Account Settings" click "Privacy"
· Under "Profile for Mobile" select "Only my friends can view my View More Info page on mobile"
· Under "Friends" select "Only my friends can view my friends page"
· Click "Save All Changes" on the bottom of the page
Phishing is also a concern in protecting PII. An individual uses phishing in an attempt to gain PII through clever e-mails and links, tricking others into revealing personal information. Use caution to avoid being fooled by promises of large sums of money or high value items.
All members of Team Charleston need to be "Net Defenders." There were more than 340 million data breaches from January 2005 to October 2009. Network intrusion is a very real threat which occurs too often in the Air Force.
The keys to remember are to restrict the use of thumb drives; protect Facebook and MySpace accounts; keep track of PII and be careful of forwarding dangerous emails. Protecting the network is a responsibility all Air Force members must share.