West Point Begins Training to Combat Insider Threats

INSIDER THREATS: Color guards from U.S. military Academy of West Point at the 56th annual Viennese Opera Ball on February 4, 2011 in New York City. Students at the academy will join a study to combat insider threats. (Joe Corrigan/Getty Images)

Students at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point will join a study on rooting out insider threats. They will deliver a final report of their findings in July.

The study ties into a growing focus of the U.S. military, which began drawing international attention after Pfc. Bradley Manning allegedly stole data from military networks and made it available to information-leaking website, WikiLeaks.

Insiders are typically different from spies, as they are trusted individuals with access to sensitive information. The Department of Defense (DOD) found that 87 percent of intruders in military systems were “either employees or others internal to the organization,” stated a DOD report.

The DOD defines “insiders” broadly as “anyone who is or has been authorized access to a DOD information system,” according to the report. An “insider threat,” on the other hand, arises from the same pool of individuals. Insiders may plant malicious code in computer systems, or steal data to either sell or leak to an outside source.

The Raytheon Company, which specializes in defense technology, is joining West Point in its study. The goal is to “arm warfighters with the ability to rapidly detect and neutralize insider threats,” according to a Raytheon Company press release.

No response was received from calls regarding the study, to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, as of press deadline.

Cadets at the academy will focus on threats in forward operating bases, on the front lines of America’s wars. The study will include recommendations on how to find and prevent insider attacks.

One group of cadets will work from a U.S. Military Academy computer network, while another group will try to evade their security systems. They will use Raytheon’s SureView information protection system.

“There is a good chance these cadets will be on the front lines, and there won’t be time to continually scrutinize everyone with access to operational plans to ensure they have no malicious intent,” said Jeanne Robinson, chief architect of Raytheon Information Security Solutions, in a press release.