New Jersey Teams With The Army On Intrusion Detection

By Eric Chabrow, InformationWeek, InternetWeek
Jul 30, 2003 (5:53 AM)
URL: http://www.internetweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=12803591

The Army will help New Jersey analyze the state's network as a step in developing an intrusion-detection system. The agreement with the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command Research, Development, and Engineering Center based at Fort Monmouth, N.J., is the first such collaboration between the center and a state.
Charles Dawson, New Jersey's chief technology officer, says a comprehensive intrusion-detection program is a key component in the state's homeland security plans to protect its IT infrastructure from cyberterrorism. The Army will help New Jersey define the operations and architecture needed to deploy an intrusion-detection and response program for the state's executive branch, which consists of 16 departments. The technical components of the program include host-based intrusion-detection systems, network-based intrusion-detection systems, and security information-management systems. The state also will receive guidance in developing policies and procedures to effectively manage the program.

For the project, the Army unit created a homeland security team that will conduct surveys with each executive branch department, provide analysis of networks and critical assets, evaluate potential products, and ultimately issue recommendations. An architecture design document also will be developed.

Dawson says New Jersey, like other states facing a budget crunch, is fortunate to have built this relationship with the Army. We're leveraging a large technology base that encompasses nearly 1,600 scientists and engineers working within communications and communications-related disciplines, he says.

The communications-electronics command center is part of the Army Communications-Electronics Command. With a research budget of more than $860 million, the command develops and secures the Army's battlefield and strategic networks and performs required system engineering to ensure seamlessly integrated systems. The command developed systems that the American forces employed on the Iraqi battlefield to network highly mobile forces with secure communications using voice and data.