Intercepts

New info war ops center. DISA has created a Global Operations and Security Center to provide centralized management for all IW-D (information warfare-defend) operations for DOD. Air Force Col. James Sweeder who previously headed NSA's Customer Engineering Support Division will run the new center.

Sweeder an Air Force Academy grad with a Ph.D. in operational research has "impeccable credentials " according to DISA director Lt. Gen. Al Edmonds.

Edmonds said the new center will give increased visibility to IW-D within the agency and DOD a move recommended by the Defense Science Board in its info war report now circulating in the Pentagon (see story page 1). Edmonds said DISA decided to jump-start the IW-D center before the DSB report received its final chop because "we don't have to wait.... We'll take money from our budget to focus on [IW-D]."

* New IW/infosec program shop too. DISA has also centralized its program for IW/infosec in a new D2 shop headed by Army Col. John Thomas former deputy commander of CISS. Edmonds said security is now spread "all across" the agency's programs - such as GCCS DISN and so on - and the new organization will provide a central focus. Thomas an Army ring-knocker also did his grunt tours with the Airborne bringing a real "hooah" attitude to Courthouse Road.

* Offensive IW? That's what some folks say lies behind the sophisticated hack of the declassified then reclassified Gulf chemical war files hosted on a Web site run by Insignia Publishing. Not only the files but also on-line orders for Insignia's book Gassed in the Gulf: An Insider's View of the DOD-CIA Cover-Up of the Gulf War Syndrome disappeared in the hack.

"Someone close to the CIA decided to try and save the agency from embarrassment " said one former intell insider speculating on the identity of the hacker. Winn Schwartau who had turned info about IW into a light industry has reposted the Gulf files on his Web site www.infowar.com.

* More DISA buys. DISA kicked off its planned DISA-EUR network with a request for information for industry looking for cost-effective and innovative solutions including ATM technology. Look for all the usual suspects to go after this with BT/MCI developing a Concert-ed strategy. Also DISA is looking for commercial satellite surge capacity worldwide using every kind of bird up there or planned. Now if they could only figure out how to get landing rights from allies such as Korea in less than two years.

* Another bite of the Apple for DOD? Apple whose presence in DOD has been limited lately to small pockets of die-hard users is now said to be looking at embedded software opportunities. One insider pointed out that the latest generation of the reinvented Newton PDA has a slot for a Fortezza card and could be used as a DMS client. Because the Newton wraps around the Fortezza card slot maybe they could call this product the DMS Fig Newton.