{"id":31703,"date":"2022-10-21T10:33:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-21T10:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/uncategorized\/2022\/10\/21\/us-must-ensure-mission-partner-data-security-for-collaborative-warfare\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T18:47:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T18:47:19","slug":"us-must-ensure-mission-partner-data-security-for-collaborative-warfare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/it-networks\/2022\/10\/21\/us-must-ensure-mission-partner-data-security-for-collaborative-warfare\/","title":{"rendered":"US must ensure mission partner data security for collaborative warfare"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For warfighters, the ability to share information in real-time is of the utmost importance. To that end, the Department of Defense has been working to connect sensors<\/a> from all branches of the U.S. military in an initiative known as Joint All Domain Command and Control, or JADC2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But countries don\u2019t go to war alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warfighting is collaborative in an international sense as well. This was seen most recently during Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine<\/a>. Allies and Ukrainian forces are sharing not just information but also training resources, technology, weapons, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Central to this level of collaboration is a secure mission partner environment that supports the transfer of data regardless of size or complexity. An MPE serves as a bridge between mission partners and the DoD\u2019s JADC2 environment. As geopolitical tensions continue to escalate, the DoD must consider how it can ensure data security in these collaborative environments without impeding the rapid transfer of mission-critical information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Role of Cross Domain Solutions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When building a coalition of partners, the DoD can\u2019t just connect them directly to its classified networks. While that would be efficient, it wouldn\u2019t be secure. And yet, rapid data sharing is still required. On the battlefield, getting information to and from mission partners quickly can be a matter of life and death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the DoD itself has explained<\/a>, attempts at collaboration in the past \u201cmight have meant fielding a call for an airstrike using one computer attached to one nation\u2019s network, then manually typing information about that airstrike request into another nation\u2019s computer on a different network.\u201d Given the speed of warfare today, such manual processes simply don\u2019t cut it. Missions evolve quickly, and every second counts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good news is that cross domain solutions can help the DoD ensure the fast and <\/i>secure transfer of information from classified networks, like SIPRNet, to its MPE\u2014and vice versa. In simplest terms, cross domain solutions enable high assurance connectivity to networks and classification levels that would otherwise be kept separate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DoD already uses cross domain solutions for the internal transfer of information\u2014i.e. taking information gathered at the intelligence level and moving it to the U.S. secret level. It must do the same for information shared with mission partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Layering In Added Protections<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When information is downgraded and transferred from a classified network to the MPE environment, details\u2014such as those pertaining to how <\/i>the intelligence was acquired\u2014are stripped out. The mission partner simply gets the most pertinent information\u2014i.e. there\u2019s an adversary at these coordinates\u2014so they can execute the mission at-hand. But sometimes, extra details can slip through the cracks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DoD and Intelligence Community rely heavily on Microsoft Office, with pertinent information often shared through PowerPoint briefings and other Microsoft documents. Sensitive information, or even malware, can lurk inside them. Zero trust content disarm and reconstruction, or ZTCDR, should be used in conjunction with cross domain solutions to ensure only <\/i>safe, relevant information is shared.<\/p>\n\n\n\t