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Computers are battlefield for AFIT students

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio — It’s a scenario used to train the Air Force’s growing corps of cyber warriors: A hacker infiltrates the central hub of an electrical grid, taking control of the power flowing through a city. Warning lights flash and Air Force computer technicians scramble into action.

It turns out the hacker didn’t do any damage this time, but the airmen still had to respond because the perceived disaster could have been the start of a multipronged assault to bring down the U.S.

In theory, such a takeover of an electrical grid’s computer systems could force an overload and a cascading failure.

“This isn’t just theory stuff,” said Brig. Gen. Walter Givhan, commandant of the Air Force Institute of Technology, the service’s graduate school of engineering and management. “They’re learning offensive stuff. They’re learning defensive stuff. This is real time.”

At AFIT’s Center for Cyberspace Research, service members and civilians learn how to strengthen defensive systems, infiltrate networks and monitor the flow of data, according to Rick Raines, a professor of electrical engineering and the center’s director. All students must be U.S. citizens for security reasons, though other AFIT programs are open to citizens of allied nations.

Established in 2002, the center is certified by the Homeland Security Department and National Security Agency and offers master’s and doctorate degrees in three areas — cyber operations, cyberwarfare and computer science/electrical engineering.

Still, despite the job opportunities, only a quarter of the center’s 140 seats are filled. Raines attributed the small enrollment number — 35 — to the 2004-2007 drawdown of 39,000 airmen, which cut hundreds if not thousands of potential students.

“There are other countries out there who are studying cybersecurity,” he said, “and they’re not leaving very many classroom seats open.”

Students participate in war games across the country each year; one of the largest is a weeklong exercise held by the NSA that requires students to both build a network resistant to attack and repel infiltration attempts by military aggressors.

The center’s students are working on as many as 40 projects that often lead — rapidly — to real-world benefits, Raines said.

Master’s degree candidate Brennon Thomas is working on a computer program that can monitor chunks of data sent through peer-to-peer file sharing such as the one Bit Torrent makes and Internet-based telephone systems, such as those offered by Skype and Vonage. Terrorists worldwide have used both protocols, Thomas said; the information collected by Thomas’ program would provide a better overview of how extremist groups work by mapping social networks.

Another of the center’s projects aims to identify every bit of data that enters cyberspace and create a “green list” of approved information that can interact with military systems, according to project researcher Bill Kimball. Everything that hasn’t already been identified as a nonthreat would be blocked. The current method identifies malware only after it’s entered the system.

Kimball likened his program to the Air Force program that identifies all air traffic over the continental U.S.

“It’s like letting planes fly over our states,” he said. “And if they shoot at us, we say, ‘Oh, look, they’re malicious.’ ”