McConnell to undergo CCRI

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Trevor Rhynes
  • 22nd Air Refueling Wing
MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan. --  Team McConnell is scheduled to undergo a Command Cyber Readiness Inspection from April 28 through May 2.

The Defense Information Systems Agency will lead the inspection, which assesses the security of a base's communications network.

"We've migrated our computer networks to the Air Force Network, said Maj. Scott McGovern, 22nd Communications Squadron commander. "Since then, these inspections have been implemented to ensure the security of this new network. We look at tendencies users have when using their systems and range from leaving their [common access card] in their computer, to phishing attempts received through email."

Although this is a big inspection in the communications world, the impact to the base is minimal.

"The biggest impact to McConnell has already happened, and that has been with the preparation for this inspection," said 2nd Lt. Andrew Apsite, 22nd CS network operations officer in charge. "Computer users might have seen notifications popping up saying that updates are being installed with unexpected reboots."

In addition to a physical inspection, there will also be a vulnerability inspection.

"The 'meat' of the inspection is going to be a vulnerability inspection done on computers base wide," Apsite said. "This is done over the network and makes up 60 percent of our CCRI score. During this scan, users might notice the network running a little slower than normal."

In order to assist the 22nd CS during the upcoming CCRI, McGovern suggests the following tips and tricks to ensure security.

· Following through with lessons learned during the Information Assurance computer based training

· Continue to protect personally identifiable information by encrypting appropriate emails and not sending information with PII to personal accounts

· Not clicking links to possible phishing websites

· Not leaving common access cards or tokens unattended

· Ensuring secured areas and rooms remain secure

· Respecting cell phone restrictions