Master Sgt. Sean Gehri,101st Air Communications Squadron, renders a salute to Col. Derek France, 325th Fighter Wing commander, during a ceremony recognizing superior performers for the recent Command Cyber Readiness Inspection. Gehri received a coin from the commander. While the 325th FW was the unit inspected, the communications requirements for the 601st Air and Space Operations Center and Air Forces Northern multiple networks represent one of the wing's largest. (Photo by A1C Sergio Gamboa)

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325th Communications Squadron takes home Excellent rating

Published July 31, 2014
By Senior Airman Christopeher Reel
325 th Figher

TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- The 325th Communications Squadron recently completed the Command Cyber Readiness Inspection and passed with an excellent rating.

The CCRI is equivalent to an Operational Readiness Inspection of a base's networks and supporting security practices.

"The CCRI is aimed at improving security of the Defense Department's Information Network and is conducted by the Defense Information Systems Agency," according to Tyndall's CCRI official website. "CCRIs check day-to-day operations. Preparations should be a verification of what Team Tyndall members do every day."

The DISA provides the Air Force with its long hall communication circuits, explained 2nd Lt. Terel Hayes, 325th CS Operations Flight deputy flight commander.

"DISA inspects individual bases to ensure that they comply with security policies required to continue to use these circuits," Hayes said. "The next inspection will be in three years."

A DISA inspection team of approximately nine individuals carried out the week long inspection July 21 to 25.

"While we secure our networks on an everyday basis, we did ramp up and increase scanning of the network for known vulnerabilities from once a month to as many as four times a month," said Hayes. "This allowed 325th CS Airmen to quickly identify systems with numerous vulnerabilities and take immediate action to remediate the vulnerabilities."

In addition to increased scanning and work tempo, the men and women of the 325th CS had to overcome obstacles.

"There were many challenges," Hayes said. "But, the most significant was when the automated patching method became inoperable a month or so prior to the inspection. Local technicians resorted manually patching machines and developing scripts to remediate vulnerabilities in mass."

In addition to this challenge, there were numerous checklist items that were the responsibility of the network operations squadron at higher headquarters, and the 325th CS technicians had to coordinate these items to ensure compliancy.

"The 325th CS technicians had a goal to achieve the excellent rating and continued to focus on the day-to-day tasks that needed to be accomplished in order to meet the desired outcome," said Hayes. "Each inspection is a little different, grading criteria changes, new vulnerabilities are known and DISA changes their focus. For the next inspection, we will review the criteria required to obtain another excellent rating and strive to meet those goals.

"This was not only a communications squadron inspection, but rather a Team Tyndall inspection," Hayes added. "Every member of the base played a key role in getting the score, whether they knew it or not. A shout out goes to every person on the base for taking the right precautions and processes when using the network and for supporting security practices."