Staying connected with friends and family is important – especially in today’s climate. And this connection becomes paramount for service members who are deployed away from home for extended periods of time – weeks, months and sometimes even years. It has been proven that frequent communications enhance morale for both service members and their families back home.
Maintaining connection and remaining involved in each others daily lives helps to provide the much-needed support and strength needed by all parties to keep them thriving. It makes the distance and time spent apart more bearable. It is often challenging to communicate when deployed abroad particularly under diverse and harsh conditions. Deployments are always different and restrictions on communications vary from one deployment to the next. This places parameters on the conversations that can be had and information that can be communicated – which leads to limited openness of communication.
Privacy is fundamental within a family unit and the fear of a lack of privacy and security also limits communications from both sides. Adding to this complex situation, working conditions of those deployed service members can be highly sensitive. Moreover, due to the extended timeframe in which some service members find themselves away from home, it is often the case that they need a means to communicate securely with, and send information to, family members back home (and vice versa). There are times where privacy and security are essential for matters to be communicated and resolved efficiently
The challenges faced point directly to data security, and by securing this valuable data many of these challenges can be met.
The main concerns involve securing data (in all its forms), managing access to data, conforming to strict data regulations for data privacy and security, and achieving this within a varied and mobile environment that crosses all boundaries physical, virtual and geographical. Service members require a reliable, private and secure means to communicate whilst operational security must be maintained.
The confidentiality, integrity and availability of communications and data created, sent, received and stored must be achieved. Through effectively securing these communications, potential threats to the security and integrity of the information is prevented. Moreover, accidental disclosure of sensitive data is thwarted and thus operational security maintained whist communications remain best supported.
Much emphasis is placed on data security. Where such an abundance of valuable and sensitive data exists, the opportunity for attack is heightened and the security risk enhanced.
Threats to sensitive data have reached a critical point and the sophistication and frequency of attacks are escalating. Like other industries, The Armed Forces continues to transition to a more electronic and mobile environment, in which service members can sustain contact with their family members back home.
The security challenges and risks to both operational security and personal service members’ security through communications must be addressed to ensure that data is always secure. It is in the Armed Forces best interest to ensure that their service members are getting the support that they require to ensure that their communications are always secure and that the valuable data asset is properly secured.
This is essential in sustaining operational security for optimal quality and safety whilst reducing the probability of risk to sensitive data.