Fergie's Tech Blog

DISA's Wi-Fi 'Flying Squirrel' Traceback

Bob Brewin writes on GovExec Tech Insider:

The Defense Information Systems Agency has started to deploy throughout the Defense Department a Wi-Fi network monitoring tool dubbed “Flying Squirrel,” according to an internal agency briefing obtained by Tech Insider.

The name Flying Squirrel, I’m told, has nothing to do with DISA – whose headquarters on Courthouse Road in Arlington, Va., is pretty much in a squirrel-free zone – or with the actual device itself, but rather it’s just a moniker that caught the fancy of an unnamed developer at the Naval Research Lab, which created the monitoring tool. DISA, on the other hand, calls the system a “Wireless Discovery Tool.”

The Flying Squirrel provides the most basic defense of any Wi-Fi network against intruders who may monitor radio activity around a DOD facility or base, I’m told by an industry source well versed in its development.

Flying Squirrel’s software, the development of which was overseen by the U.S. Strategic Command’s Enterprisewide Information Assurance and Computer Network Defense Solutions Steering Group, sniffs for users on a Wi-Fi network and, once it finds one, captures the user’s unique identifying address and geolocation. Network personnel then check the address to determine if the user is an authorized or unauthorized user on the wireless network.

posted by Fergie @ 5/15/2007 07:07:00 PM