Ian Spillane

摘要

In order to successfully operate in today’srnbattlespace systems need to be ‘connected’,rnI.e. to be able exchange information with thernplethora of providers and consumers present.rnSuccessful exchanges rely upon the use ofrncompatible communications pathsrn(compatible frequencies, equipment andrnsignalling) and standardised message setsrnand/or data formats. Typically thesernmechanisms are defined in Standards (DefrnStans, Mil Standards, STANAGs) – in somerncases encompassing all aspects in onerndocument (for example Link 16), in othersrnspread across a number of standards (e.g. thernuse of VMF).rnHowever the ease of data transfer amongstrn‘interoperable’ systems has to be balancedrnagainst the requirements to keep such datarntransfers secure. This needs to be consideredrnnot only with respect to protection fromrnexternal attack, but also to preventrninadvertent transfer of classified data onto anrnunclassified network, or transfer of higherrnclassified data onto a lower level classifiedrnnetwork (Secret onto a Confidentialrnnetwork), or transfer of nationally classifiedrndata onto a internationally classified network.rnThe introduction of Information Assurancernsafeguards inevitably leads to reductions inrnreal interoperability between systems. Thesernproblems are further exacerbated by the usernof data gateways, forwarders and translatorsrnwhich are put in place to tie together therndisparate networks being employed in today’srnbattlespacernThis paper will explore the problemsrnidentified above, the impacts they are havingrnin the real world, and look at how they can bernreduced or even removed in the future