DISA's 2011 budget tightens communications security

Next year the Defense Information Systems Agency plans to all but isolate military networks from the public Internet, upgrade switches that manage secret Voice over Internet Protocol communications for the president and a range of Defense Department personnel, and field advanced satellite phones to troops in Afghanistan, according to the agency's fiscal 2011 budget.

DISA's procurement budget shows the agency plans to spend $14.6 million next year to continue to acquire the hardware and software to protect its unclassified and secret networks from probes and intrusion, up 40 percent from $10.4 million in 2010.

This includes $5.9 million to complete what DISA called a DMZ on its unclassified networks, which would eliminate the need for most Defense agencies and users to connect to the public Internet to reduce exposure to cyberattacks. The DMZ will isolate servers that host applications needed to connect to the Internet -- such as Web servers and public Web pages -- from other Defense systems.

DISA spent $58 million to acquire hardware and software for its Information Systems Security Program, which protects Defense networks that serve 5 million personnel and plans to spend an additional $87.9 million between fiscal 2011 and fiscal 2015.

The agency requested $288.6 million for its operations and maintenance budget for the Information Systems Security Program next year, down 6 percent from $308.3 million in fiscal 2010.

The operations and maintenance budget supports e-mail and Web content filtering systems, software and hardware to detect and remove virus and spyware attacks, and detection of insider threats, among other functions. DISA spent $578.6 million on the Information Systems Security Program during the past two years.

DISA asked for $89.2 million in fiscal 2011 for its classified, governmentwide Comprehensive National Security Initiative, up nearly 40 percent from $54.0 million in fiscal 2010.

The agency operates the White House Communications Agency and has requested $2 million to upgrade switches that provide VoIP phone service for the president and other senior federal officials. DISA launched the VoIP project in 2002, and it now primarily serves more than 90,000 Defense personnel worldwide.

The White House Communications Agency also requested $1.9 million, the same as in fiscal 2010, to continue developing work on the presidential and national voice conferencing systems, which will rely on the advanced extremely high frequency communications satellite to provide secure, jam-proof voice conferencing for the president and other top government officials.

Although tactical communications are not DISA's primary mission, the agency requested $23.1 million to develop and deploy to troops in Afghanistan more than 4,000 upgraded handsets for use on the iridium mobile satellite system. The handsets will operate much like a terrestrial radio system rather than a mobile phone, providing instant communications between callers at the push of a switch.