2006 WVNG Annual Report PDF - West Virginia Army National Guard

West Virginia National Guard Annual Report 2006Throughout the year, West Virginia's National Guard assisted the National Guard Bureauin testing new services for the mobile communications packages, such as video teleconferencingbetween a mobile communications kit and the Army National Guard video teleconferencingnetwork. Also, new innovative services have been pioneered by the West VirginiaNational Guard for the mobile communicationspackages, such as a remote controlled InternetProtocol camera as well as secure telephoneand fax services. To continue honing its skills,the West Virginia National Guard will participatein a Northern Command sponsoredCoalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstrationin 2007. This exercise will validate theability of the mobile communications packagesto provide incident site communicationsservices (an important homeland defensemission) during a simulated major evacuationof the National Capital Region due to terroristattack.As with the private sector, National Guard technology faces multiple challenges. Threatsto over 1,700 networked computers cause the security staff to be ever vigilant. As noted onnational news broadcasts, information security is of paramount importance and the need forabsolute privacy abounds. Technological advances continue to be rampant in the informationtechnology business. New technologyoften makes legacy systemsobsolete within a matter of a fewmonths. To protect data, informationand personnel, the National Guardinstalled computer access cardreaders to computers within theNational Guard communicationsinfrastructure. These card readersensure only authorized personnelaccess U. S. Government systems.As the world-wide information threatcontinues, J6 staff receives InformationAssurance Vulnerability Alerts(IAVAs) that aide in informationtechnology. On site security managers successfully applied these "patches" and "fixes", thusensuring full security of National Guard systems.In order to gain a more efficient use and upkeep of technology, Camp Dawson informationtechnology staff reorganized into a robust organization consisting of J6, Homeland Securityand National Guard Bureau personnel. This "tailored" team supports armories and facilities inNorthern West Virginia and Camp Dawson. The group's efforts earned highest accoladesfrom National Guard Bureau and the team's many customers.36