The United States Army has chosen Northrop Grumman to support its
worldwide combat information security operations in what is thought
to be one of the largest deals of its kind.
The $300m contract consolidates six existing agreements into a
single deal that will add 220 IT security jobs to Northrop
Grumman's IT division, according to Jim O'Neill, president of
Northrop Grumman IT TASC. The aerospace and defence contractor
acquired TASC and its parent company, Litton Industries, last
year.
Northrop Grumman will be responsible for "acquiring, protecting,
managing and exploiting information" to support Army combat
operations around the world, O'Neill said. This is the first global
information operations contract of its size and scope, he said.
Direct assistance will be provided to Army commands worldwide
through the Army's Land Information Warfare Activity at Fort
Belvoir.
Information operations, or IO, is a military term that pertains to
both the offensive and defensive aspects of using IT systems. The
military defines IO as "actions taken to affect adversary
information and information systems, while defending one's own
information and information systems".
According to O'Neill, the IO capabilities the company is bringing
to bear to help the Army perform its missions around the world
could be applied to improve homeland security. "This has a lot of
applicability to state and local governments as well," he
said.
Other experts agreed. At a recent government-sponsored conference
on homeland security, Rosanne Hynes, a senior executive on the
Pentagon's Homeland Security Task Force, said the federal
government should take a "teach them to fish" approach when working
with state, local and private-sector entities.
Developing security-awareness technologies "is something we've
spent a lot of time and money on," she said.
Larry Abella, vice-president and director of strategic security at
Northrop Grumman IT TASC, said that in addition to traditional
network security work, the Army contract calls for the development
of visualisation technology.
"One of the challenges that system administrators have is
understanding the data that is coming out of the
intrusion-detection devices," he said. "We've developed ways to
visualise data sets that indicate what types of attacks you are
being subjected to and what the impact is."
The majority of the positions being added to Northrop Grumman's IT
division will be in network security, monitoring and analysis. In
fact, the company as a whole currently has more than 500 funded
IT-related positions that have yet to be filled - in addition to
those called for by the contract, said O'Neill.
While many industries are cutting back on IT staff and budgets,
O'Neill said, the defence sector seems to be reaping the benefits
of the downturn in other markets and the war on terrorism.