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Washington Pulse
April 2007
Foreign Software Not Inherently Evil
By Sandra I. Erwin
 Critics of globalization who often decry the outsourcing of high-tech manufacturing lately have been sounding distress signals about the potential harm to national security that could be caused by software designed and made outside the United States. In their view, the use of foreign and perhaps anonymous supply chains can create concerns that software may have hidden flaws, intentionally introduced, that opponents will later exploit, notes James Andrew Lewis, author of “Foreign Influence on Software: Risks and Recourse.” In the study — sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies — Lewis says these scary scenarios tend to stir up irrational fears and make everyone lose sight of the real problem. “In a global economy, foreign or domestic makes little difference for security,” Lewis writes. “Focusing on the location where software is written will not improve security. There are better ways to get access to sensitive information or networks — from hacking to traditional espionage.” The way to protect sensitive U.S. technology is by “improving the processes by which software is made. Expanding best practices already used by many companies is the key to better security.”
As if soldiers weren’t busy enough these days, the Army now is requiring them to become electronic-warfare specialists. The new mandate stems from the realization that insurgents in Iraq have become quite deft at exploiting the electronic spectrum — creating command-and-control networks with cell phones, and detonating bombs via electronic devices. Disrupting those networks has been difficult despite the assistance from Navy EW officers who have been assigned to Army units in Iraq. The Army apparently is not entirely happy with that arrangement and wants to breed its own EW talent. The goal is to replace 150 naval personnel by March 2008, says Col. Laurie Buckhout, chief of the Army’s electronic warfare directorate. Eventually, “every soldier in the Army has to be good at this,” she says. “The Army hasn’t done electronic warfare in 30 years. All the services are in the EW business except the Army.” The problem is that the Navy and the Air Force focus on airborne electronic attack, which is not as useful for Army operations, Buckhout says. “Ground EW is a whole new skill set.” The Army has allocated $25 million to begin training officers and senior enlisted personnel.
For years the Defense Department has been replacing outdated financial and business systems with modern software of the sort used in commercial industry. The Pentagon has invested billions of dollars in these new technologies — known as “enterprise resource planning” systems. One flaw in the plan, however, is that employees in charge of using these technologies have not been properly trained. “We found that the government staff did not have a lot of ERP skills,” says David Fisher, the newly appointed director of the Defense Department’s Business Transformation Agency.
ERP software is the largest investment made by the business transformation agency, and yet the employees who are responsible for executing the work have trouble understanding the technology, Fisher tells reporters. To remedy the situation, Fisher, who is himself an ERP expert, is creating a “center of excellence” to help get workers up to speed.
National Laboratories Out of the Loop?
The Energy Department’s laboratories are among the nation’s most treasured sources of technical innovation. They design everything from nuclear warheads to radiation detectors. The labs also would like to put their talents to work in the U.S. war against terrorism, but unfortunately the Defense Department keeps them out of the loop, scientists lament. The national laboratories do not have insight into the military’s security problems, according to lab officials attending a Washington, D.C. conference. During a panel discussion, representatives from the Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, Idaho and Brookhaven national laboratories, offered that they would like more open lines of communications with the Defense Department and the military services to better understand their needs and see how they can help.
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