Ready for anything: 4th FW excels during CCRI

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Brittain Crolley
  • 4th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
SEYMOUR JOHNSON AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. --  The 4th Fighter Wing was recently tested on its ability to combat virtual threats during an Defense Information Systems Agency Cyber Readiness Inspection, culminating in an "excellent" rating for the wing.

The weeklong assessment, conducted in March, critiqued the ins and outs of the base's cyber security measures, from safeguarding classified information to simply removing Common Access Cards from computers when not in use.

"It was a very big victory for us," said Tech. Sgt. Angelina Martell, 4th Communications Squadron NCO in charge of network operations. "Everyone was happy we finally made it over the hurdle and got the score we deserved after all the hard work everybody put into it. It was really a team effort across the board and we had a lot of smart guys coming up with network solutions to make it as smooth as possible for us."

Much of the burden of the CCRI fell on the 4th CS. Notice of the inspection came shortly after the wing completed an Operational Readiness Inspection just over one year ago, wherein a core group of squadron members were recognized as superior performers. Needless to say, the high of triumph was quickly overtaken by the weight of preparing for another inspection.

Beginning in January, the squadron commenced 24/7 operations, which required Airmen to work long hours fixing more than 200,000 network vulnerabilities and training thousands of network users on information assurance practices. Before the inspection began, the team had that number down to fewer than 20,000.

"A lot of hard work went into making this inspection a success," said Staff Sgt. Shawna Bittler, 4th CS assistant NCOIC of the communications focal point. "It was a lot to put on our team, but they all stepped up to make sure we were ready for anything."

According to Bittler, the CCRI was beneficial to the wing in two ways: not only did it identify the many strengths of the base's network operations, but it also helped pinpoint weaknesses the squadron could correct in order to fortify the defense structure.

After the inspection, the squadron went back to work fixing the issues that were identified through the process.

"We learned a lot of things we could have done better to strengthen our security," said Senior Master Sgt. Efcel Velez, 4th CS operations flight superintendent. "The inspection really validated all the hard work that went into it and proved the 4th Fighter Wing is on top of cyber operations security."