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Defense Information Systems Agency Monitoring Network With Enterprise Tool

U.S. Department of Defense agency gets new enterprise network monitoring tool, more states could be next.

If someone decides to target the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) network, they'd better think twice: The organization has a new enterprisewide solution designed to find suspicious behavior on its network.

The agency signed a multiyear, multimillion dollar contract with systems integrator TKC Global Solutions to deploy the Lumeta IPsonar network mapping and leak detection solution, which will help manage the machines that keep the U.S. Department of Defense running. Lumeta, a provider of risk assessment tools, is TKC's partner supplying the goods. The deal was announced Tuesday, Jan. 12.

The solution is a good, proactive step for the agency, according to Michael Markulec, Lumeta's chief operating officer.

"It's no longer acceptable to wait until you have a breach before you deploy network security solutions," he said. "It's no longer OK to lose a laptop before you start putting encryption out there, so we're seeing a more proactive response, especially in the federal government,"

The Department of Defense didn't return a call for comment about the deal. According to a news release, DISA will use IPsonar to reduce network topology gaps in the Department of Defense network. The agency will act at the request of the Joint Task Force-Global Network Operations of the United States Strategic Command.

DISA has had the IPsonar technology since 2003 on its Secure Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNet), but chose to expand the solution across the enterprise. IPsonar maps and analyzes connectivity between assets and networks to detect risk patterns and automate network policy enforcement. The technology is designed to find every asset, both known and unknown.

Markulec feels that today's attack vectors are more numerous than in the past.

"Everybody's under more attacks," he said. "Go look at the firewall on your home network and look at the LANs and look at the attempt to connect to it from the outside. It's not just the government networks that are more threatened. All networks are more threatened,"

Markulec also said that Lumeta won a contract with a state government in the second quarter of 2009, though he wouldn't name which, and that the company is interested in pursuing other states.

"We're seeing more and more applicability to our solution at the state and local level, so we're actively pursuing several state-level contracts to do the same thing we've done inside the federal agencies," he said.

 

Hilton Collins is a former staff writer for Government Technology and Emergency Management magazines.