The Cyber Defense Exercise is a computer security competition designed to foster education and awareness among future military leaders about the role of information assurance (IA) in protecting the nation’s critical information systems. The exercise challenged teams of students drawn from each of the service academies with designing, building, and successfully defending a real-world computer network against simulated intrusions by a team of Department of Defense experts. The entire exercise was conducted on virtual private networks, providing a safe path for the exercise while preventing interference with real-world networks.
Without a doubt, we live in a net-centric world. New information technologies arrive at lightning speed, allowing us to share information across town, across the country, or around the world faster than ever before. NSA's Information Assurance Directorate is dedicated to providing information assurance solutions that will keep our information systems safe from harm. Our national security depends on it.
IAD's mission involves detecting, reporting, and responding to cyber threats; making encryption codes to securely pass information between systems; and embedding IA measures directly into the emerging Global Information Grid. It includes building secure audio and video communications equipment, making tamper protection products, and providing trusted microelectronics solutions. It entails testing the security of customers' systems, providing OPSEC assistance, and evaluating commercial software and hardware against nationally set standards, to better meet our nation's IA needs.
