{"id":8030,"date":"2023-01-18T20:50:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-18T20:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/?p=8030"},"modified":"2023-03-07T20:50:25","modified_gmt":"2023-03-07T20:50:25","slug":"maryland-ang-first-to-certify-cyber-protection-team-on-live-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/2023\/01\/18\/maryland-ang-first-to-certify-cyber-protection-team-on-live-network\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland ANG first to certify cyber protection team on live network"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Master Sgt. Christopher Schepers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
U.S. Air Force Capt. Ashley Oates, 275th Cyberspace Operations Squadron flight commander, briefs Airmen assigned to the 275th Cyberspace Operations Squadron at Warfield Air National Guard Base at Martin State Airport, Middle River, Md., on January 10, 2023. Oates leads a cyber protection team that was the first team in the Air National Guard to certify on a live Department of Defense network. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Chris Schepers)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n


MIDDLE RIVER, Md. —
Members of the Maryland Air National Guard\u2019s 275th Cyberspace Operations Squadron recently became the first cyber operators in the Air National Guard to certify a Cyber Protection Team using their weapon system on a live base network during real-world missions.

As a part of the U.S. military\u2019s Cyber Mission Force, CPTs are defensive in nature. These teams were created to hunt existing network threats and defend against attacks by finding and mitigating potential vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure, systems or platforms.

\u201cWe operate the cyber vulnerability assessment hunter weapon system,\u201d said Capt. Ashley Oates, 275th COS flight commander and mission element lead for the certification event. \u201cIt is a toolkit that does exactly what it says, in that it is a vulnerability assessment toolkit that has capabilities for both network analysis and host analysis.\u201d

Typically, the process for certification of a CPT is completed entirely in a virtual environment where tasks are controlled, and the flow of information received by operators is manufactured. By certifying on a live DoD network, the operators could perform the certification tasks using real-time data.

\u201cWhat was so important for this certification event is that we were exposed to real-life patterns that we don\u2019t get in a typical training environment,\u201d Oates said. \u201cThe training environment can replicate real life but when you\u2019re on a network that is connected to people operating on it and performing their day-to-day operations, we are able to see exactly what is going on in a specific time span.\u201d

According to Oates, during this certification event, her Airmen were able to see both \u201chuman-to-human information flow\u201d and any \u201cmachine interaction\u201d occurring on the network, which helped her team develop better tactics, techniques and procedures.

\u201cIt\u2019s just like looking at Interstate 95. You can tell when there is a backup and when it is smooth sailing,\u201d Oates said. \u201cThat is what we could see on the network, we could see if there was a bottleneck in the data flow and having that natural occurrence of data flow gave us the ability to learn something new every time we were on it.\u201d

For cyberspace operation groups in the ANG, the 119th Cyberspace Operations Group from the Tennessee ANG is the tasking authority for CPTs to initiate a certification event.

\u201cWhen it comes to certifying a CPT, the idea is to organize one mission element and run through the certification process,\u201d Oates said. \u201cCYBERCOM outlines the requirements for certification and once the team has met all standards, they can actually preform the function of a CPT.\u201d

In total, a CPT tests itself through a gauntlet of tasks that measures their ability to perform the core tasks of a high-functioning cyber team: hunting, enabling, hardening, and assessing.

\u201cWe are tested on 53 joint mission essential tasks that have to be met for us to become a certified cyber protection team,\u201d Oates said. \u201cStarting with the tasking authority, you have to partner with external agencies to ensure success during a certification event. You need to know who to work with at higher headquarters and actively engage with internal partners for support during the event.\u201d

In addition to the 119th COG, the 275th COS worked with multiple partners to ensure that the certification event was successful.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Airmen assigned to the 275th Cyberspace Operations Squadron pose for a photograph at Warfield Air National Guard Base at Martin State Airport, Middle River, Md., on January 10, 2023. Oates leads a cyber protection team that was the first team in the Air National Guard to certify on a live Department of Defense network. (Name blurred for security reasons) (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Chris Schepers)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe 275th Operations Support Squadron and the 175th Communications Flight were an integral part to the team\u2019s success throughout this certification event,\u201d Oates said. \u201cThe 275th OSS were our validators during this event and ensured we were completing the certification tasks correctly. The 175th Communications Flight provided communications support and made sure that we had a thorough understanding of the communications infrastructure for the base locally.\u201d

According to Col. Jason Barrass, 175th COG deputy commander, it was a challenging task for the Airmen of the 275th COS to effectively plan out.

\u201cTo get this done, they created all of the memorandums of agreement and received the appropriate authorization through the National Guard Bureau, the 299th NOSC [Network Operations Squadron], and our communications flight,\u201d Barrass said. \u201cWith all of that in place, they partnered with those entities to look at one specific area on base and their network and essentially demonstrated their ability to do some of their critical missions skills live on the network.\u201d

Together, the 275th COS and its partners worked, and the squadron certified a CPT so that they could now utilize their weapon system and assist during a real-world deployment.

\u201cNow that we have certified as a CPT and we are in our window for activation, we are excited to be able to go out and execute the mission that we are trained to do,\u201d Oates said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Master Sgt. Christopher Schepers MIDDLE RIVER, Md. — Members of the Maryland Air National Guard\u2019s 275th Cyberspace Operations Squadron recently became the first cyber operators in the Air National Guard to certify a Cyber Protection Team using their weapon system on a live base network during real-world missions. As a part of the U.S.  Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":8035,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8030"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8038,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8030\/revisions\/8038"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}