[ISN] U.S. Army gets tough with desktop software policy

From: InfoSec News <alerts_at_private>
Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2008 03:06:54 -0500 (CDT)
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/100708-army-desktop-software.html

By Ellen Messmer
Network World 
10/07/2008

Many organizations would like to keep their network users from adding 
unauthorized software to their desktops, and the U.S. Army is no 
different.

Since early this year, the U.S. Army Information Management Support 
Center, which supports the Pentagon staff, has deployed software on 
about 11,000 desktop machines that watches for unauthorized 
applications. If one is discovered, the monitoring software reports back 
so an Army oversight group called the Configuration Control Board, which 
lets the user also know about the discovery so a decision can be made 
about whether the application should be allowed.

If there’s no justification for using the software, the unauthorized 
application can be automatically deleted remotely. According to John 
Brehm, senior systems engineer at Serco, a systems integration firm 
aiding the Army in this program, the goal is to identify unauthorized 
applications and enforce policy while giving users the opportunity to 
explain why the software is on their desktop.

“A directive came out from the CIO in the Army because there was a lot 
of unauthorized software running,” Brehm says. “This is potentially 
unsafe.”

[...]


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Received on Wed Oct 08 2008 - 01:06:54 PDT

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