Can You Hear Me Now?

The issue of cybersecurity pretty much dominates the discussions around information and communications technology (ICT) these days. A new Pentagon instruction shines the spotlight on another longstanding issue in the ICT community: information sharing with civilian organizations during stabilization and reconstruction operations.

The April 30 document, for the first time, clarifies how defense officials should use their IT gear to help civilian organizations plug into unclassified military information networks set up during disaster relief and reconstruction operations.

Here are some core points of the new instruction:

• “Extension of bandwidth to or sharing of existing available bandwidth with civil-military partners is permitted to enable connection to or provision of Internet service and voice capability.
• “Where circumstances require temporary cellular network services to be installed for DoD elements, these services may be extended for interim use by non-DoD partners until local services are re-established.
• “The military departments and defense agencies will ensure that ICT wireless equipment complies with existing domestic, regional, and international frequency spectrum allocations and regulations for interference free operations.”

Many details are covered in the document itself.