Encryption keeps cyberspace secure Published July 30, 2009 By Donna Hegger 375th Communications Support Squadron Flight Commander SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. -- The Department of Defense faces a cyberspace environment today more hostile than any other time in history. Our adversaries continuously attempt to infiltrate and barrage the network with malicious e-mail, scams and phishing attempts. Digitally signing and encrypting e-mail are two components to combat these threats, and secure the network. A signed and encrypted e-mail takes advantage of DoD's robust and trusted Public Key Infrastructure, and as signing and encrypting becomes a routine procedure, the threat of malicious e-mail will be reduced. The first component of digitally signing and encrypting e-mail was implemented with the use of the Common Access Cards for signing and encrypting e-mail from individual user mailboxes. Unfortunately that capability did not extend to organizational e-mail accounts. To that effect, the Air Force PKI System Program office developed a soft certificate program. In order to assist the Air Force PKI office with generating and issuing these certificates, personnel across major commands were trained and appointed as Local Registration Authorities. In October 2007, the 375th Communications Support Squadron's Information Assurance flight stood up the Local Registration Authority Office to service personnel on Scott (with the exception of USTRANSCOM who has its own LRA capability within J6). In accordance with Air Force directives, e-mails shall be encrypted when they contain information such as For Official Use Only information, Privacy Act information, individually identifiable health information, DoD payroll, finance, proprietary and foreign government information, or contract data. Encryption increases bandwidth and resource requirement, therefore, e-mail encryption should be used to protect only the above types of information and the number of recipients should be kept to a minimum. If your organizational e-mail account has a requirement to send and receive encrypted e-mail, the 375th CSPTS can help. The first step is to appoint a sponsor and open a ticket with the Scott Communications Focal Point. The 375th CSPTS Information Assurance flight stands ready to assist your organization in establishing your organizational e-mail accounts. Points of contact are Carol Sanders at 256-5515 or Senior Airman Alicia Dhane at 256-6185.