Intercepts

N/MCI Champagne Party

The Navy/Marine Corps Intranet should be viewed as a "transformational

tool" that will enable the deployed Navy to make use of the "power of networking,"

according to Ron Turner, the Navy's deputy chief information officer for

infrastructure, systems and technology.

When the Navy finally manages to award the contract in September, Turner

said, "There will be a large champagne party, and I will personally hold

it."

Turner, who recently spoke to reporters in New York during the International

Naval Review 2000 expo, reiterated that the Defense Information Systems

Agency remains very active in N/MCI planning as the program's long-haul

communications provider. Turner also noted that a DISA augmentation plan

for N/MCI is going through the waiver process and that the networking performance

parameters required under the contract are cutting-edge. "It totally aligns

with what industry is doing and doesn't align at all with what government

has done to date," Turner said.

As far as performance is concerned, N/MCI calls for a 70-millisecond

latency threshold (the average time it takes for a packet of data to get

from one point to another) and a less than 1 percent packet collision rate

(the error rate in reassembling packets of information sent between systems).

"I don't think you're going to see that today in the Defense Information

Systems Network," Turner said.

No to NOAH

Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), chairman of the House Military Research and

Development Subcommittee, recently told the Interceptor that his proposal

to establish a National Operations and Analysis Hub, a massive data-mining

and intelligence integration center, has encountered stiff resistance from

the Pentagon. NOAH would have been modeled after the Army's Land Information

Warfare Activity, which was the only intelligence organization capable of

providing background material to Weldon on a prominent Serb negotiator during

the crisis in Kosovo. "To me that was an indictment of our system," Weldon

said.

Computer Crime Olympics

Special Agent Jim Christy, law enforcement and counterintelligence coordinator

for the Defensewide Information Assurance Program, submitted a trip report

on a recent DOD-wide computer crime workshop. Team-building was a major

focus of the workshop, which brought information assurance officers, criminal

investigators and lawyers together for the weeklong seminar. A look at the

calendar of events in this grueling athletic competition makes me wonder

how hackers and criminals get away with anything.

n Sneaker-Net Relay: Three team members must carry a diskette to a computer

and copy a file from diskette to designated directory with their team's

name. Then they return the diskette to a teammate. Repeat three times, best

time wins.

n The 3.5-inch Diskette Relay: Ten diskettes are placed between the

foreheads of two team members. Teams must move from starting line to designated

point and return without dropping diskettes and without touching one another.

If diskettes are dropped, coach and members may pick them up and continue.

Best time wins.

n The JAG Spin-a-rama: A team member bends over, puts his or her forehead

on a bat and spins around 10 times, then walks to the finish line. Timing

starts when the team member starts the first spin. Best time wins.

Intercept something? Send it to the Interceptor at antenna@fcw.com.