Science Applications International Corp. may have snared information security hot shots Mike Higgins and Ken van Wyk, but the Defense Information Systems Agency had expertise in reserve. Higgins, former chief of the vulnerabilities staff at DISA's Center for Information Systems Security, has been replaced by Ken Danckaert, a National Security Agency employee and former deputy commander of the center. Ken van Wyk's successor as chief of CISS' Vulnerabilities Analysis Assessment Program is Army Lt. Col.
Science Applications International Corp. may have snared information security hot shots
Mike Higgins and Ken van Wyk, but the Defense Information Systems Agency had expertise in
reserve.
Higgins, former chief of the vulnerabilities staff at DISA's Center for Information
Systems Security, has been replaced by Ken Danckaert, a National Security Agency employee
and former deputy commander of the center. Ken van Wyk's successor as chief of CISS'
Vulnerabilities Analysis Assessment Program is Army Lt. Col. Bernard Krauss, described in
a DISA statement as a ""highly capable and experienced infosec professional.''
DISA also has reorganized the CISS into three departments: assessment, headed by
Danckaert; infosec training, headed by Jim Flaggert; and security and certification,
headed by Rob Rogalski. Also, the 24-hour Automated Systems Security Incident Support
Team, run by Deborah Balducci and previously under Higgins' supervision, now reports to
DISA's Current Operations Division, headed by Navy Capt. Bill Lillard.
The 1996 Defense authorization bill has yet to become law, but its provisions calling
for the creation of chief information officers throughout the government seem to be
catching fire at the Defense Department.
The Navy's Exchange Service Command in Virginia Beach, Va., is the latest to join the
CIO wave, naming William F. Finefeld to the post late last year. Finefeld was
administrator of the Defense Logistics Agency's information processing center in Richmond,
Va.
Executives at Litton Industries, which recently parted with $425 million in exchange
for PRC Inc., must have slapped each others' backs after the Space and Naval Warfare
Systems Command tapped the newly acquired company for $77 million worth of software work.
Under a five-year contract, PRC will provide software development, engineering and
maintenance services to SPAWAR's Integrated Command, Control, Communications, Computers
and Intelligence Systems Program Directorate. The work will support the Joint Maritime
Command Information System, the Navy's premier data fusion system for commanders.
Northrop Grumman Corp. announced an agreement to swallow the defense and electronic
systems business of Westinghouse Electric Corp. for a throat-clutching $3 billion in cash.
The merger, subject to regulatory approval, would create a defense leviathan with
annual sales exceeding $9 billion. The merger also would give Northrop Grumman a
commanding place in the surveillance, imaging and battlespace management market.
Westinghouse Electronic Systems also is known for expertise in electronic countermeasures
and tactical communications equipment.