Harris to defend Army computers

The Army announced April 15 that it has awarded a multimillion-dollar contract to Harris Corp. to help protect its worldwide computer networks from cyberthreats.

The award calls for deploying Harris' Security Threat Avoidance Technology (STAT) Scanner on more than 1.5 million Army workstations worldwide. The work to install the vulnerability assessment tool is already under way, according to a company spokesman.

STAT Scanner provides network administrators with an analysis of all vulnerabilities, details about the risk level of each vulnerability and remediation of detected weaknesses. The product features enterprise reporting to enable officers to monitor the vulnerability analysis results of systems under their command, according to the Melbourne, Fla.-based company.

Under terms of the contract, which was awarded last month, STAT Scanner will be used to detect vulnerabilities in active-duty and reserve Army computer networks. Myriad systems are scheduled to be covered including:

* Strategic networks — post, camp and station computers.

* Tactical networks.

* Mobile Subscriber Equipment networks (microwave radio system).

* The Army's Tactical Internet, including direct applicability to the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical.

STAT Scanner searches for vulnerabilities in Microsoft Corp. Windows NT, Windows 2000/XP, Linux and Unix operating platforms, assessing more than 1,400 network security vulnerabilities and automatically repairing many of them.

The Army contract also requires Harris to provide maintenance services for three years.

In addition to Scanner, the STAT product suite includes: Neutralizer, a behavior-based intrusion-prevention tool that stops security threats, and Analyzer, a network security risk assessment tool that automates and streamlines the network security assessment process.