New policy for social networking

  • Published
  • 3rd Wing Public Affairs
ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska --  The Department of Defense announced their new policy allowing social media access from computers linked to the military's unclassified network, March 1.

Although the DoD policy has changed it will be some time before Airmen and Soldiers on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson see the change come into affect.

"This recent DoD-level guidance has the potential to significantly change the way the Army's Land War Net (NIPRNET-Non-Secure Internet for official use) is operated and may serve to further enhance user's access capabilities," said Lt. Col. Charles Parker, 59th Signal Battalion commander. "However, current U.S. Army Alaska and U.S. Army Garrison Alaska network users should not expect to see immediate changes to the U.S. Army Pacific's current theater-level network user policies. U.S. Army Pacific Information Assurance representatives are actively reviewing and assessing the guidance issued by the Office of the Deputy Secretary of Defense and will make recommendations to the Commander for any adjustments.

Today people of all ages are using sites such as MySpace and Facebook, and the military using with these networks to communicate to the nearly 400 million active users, which is one of the reasons for the policy.

"Any future changes to these policies will be made in accordance with Department of the Army instructions and synchronized with other Army Theater networks," said Parker.
"During a period of unprecedented technological growth and the rapidly expanding use of Social Media on the commercial Internet, one of our Army's greatest challenges is ensuring a proper balance remains in meeting the operational requirements of the Warfighter while assuring the protection of our Army's sensitive networks and data."

When the 673rd Air Base Wing is activated the Air Force and the Army Garrison units will fall under the Air Force networks.

"The Air Force is the host service for Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson network so we are extending our Air Force network to a few buildings on Fort Richardson that are part of the Garrison," said Lt. Col. Scott Jackson, 3rd Communications Squadron commander. "The personnel that work in those buildings will transition from the current Army network to the Air Force network."

Jackson also said "After the JBER transition, those customers will use Air Force network access and will follow Air Force policy and guidance for the network."

The first few months will be a trial by error process for DoD. Once DoD has established the best guidelines then we can expect to see those guidelines implemented into our local policies for both the USB drives and the Social Networking sites, said Colonel Jackson.