DYESS AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Editor's note: This article is being republished to include changes to facts that were believed to be true at the time of the original posting. In the original article, the CCRI Phase II award was identified as a DoD award rather than an Air Force award. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
The 7th Communication Squadron received a 96.3 percent, the highest in Air Force history, during the 7th Bomb Wing's Command Cyber Readiness Inspection Nov. 14-18.
"We were inspected on traditional security and the vulnerability of our network," said Senior Airman Justin Walls, 7 CS. "For the comm world, this inspection is bigger than an Operational Readiness Inspection. It has the potential to shutdown the entire network if we fail."
The 7 CS scored 96.3 percent for the NIPR portion of the inspection earning a grade of "Outstanding." They received an "Excellent" on the SIPR portion with a score of 80.5 percent.
Ross Balfour, 24th Air Force Cyber Force Protection Branch, congratulated the 7 CS on the unprecedented score of 96.3 percent.
"I would like to take this opportunity to point out that Dyess AFB has achieved the highest NIPR CCRI score since the implementation of CCRI Phase II scoring," he said. "Prior to this, the highest NIPR score for the Air Force was 92.9 percent"
The inspection was a detailed review of Dyess' Information Assurance programs, UNCLASS and CLASSIFIED networks, and analysis and scoring of critical cyber and physical assets.
"Our cyberspace warriors work extremely hard every day defending the net," said Maj. Robert Mammenga, 7 CS commander. "This inspection validated the work we do is spot-on, and we are extremely proud that we have been defending the net better than any other Air Force cyberspace professionals."
Mammenga believes the labor-intensive preparation for the CCRI was the key to the record-setting performance.
"Two keys to success were our aggressive approach to patching vulnerable systems and the deployment of Microsoft Windows 7," Mammenga said. "New vulnerabilities are discovered every day, and this approach quickly reduces the risk of intrusion on the network."
The 7 CS migrated 3,080 of our 3,529 workstations to Windows 7 prior to the CCRI.
"Receiving the highest inspection score in Air Force history, the men and women of the 7 CS's commitment to excellence shone through as one of America's premier communication squadrons," added Mammenga.