Maverick joins Army for network security

The Army will use a new product from General Dynamics Electronic Systems

for testing network vulnerabilities and for training soldiers to respond

to cyberattacks.

General Dynamics delivered the product, dubbed Maverick, on Oct. 17. The

company bills Maverick as "the first commercially available Internet security

software to combine Internet reconnaissance and Internet attack capabilities."

The contractor funded development of the product jointly with the Army Communications-Electronics

Command, Fort Monmouth, N.J., under a dual-use science and technology program.

The product is designed to help users identify network security flaws, to

evaluate information system performance while under cyberattacks and to

respond to attacks in a controlled environment.

Maverick hosts network reconnaissance tools used to locate network security

holes in computers, operating systems, applications and security devices.

It also includes a suite of scripted attacks commonly used by cyber intruders,

but users can also add their own attack scripts, according to a General

Dynamics source.

"If an organization says its networks are as secure as Fort Knox, my question

is, "How do you know?'" said John Stewart the company's president. "General

Dynamics can answer that question by exposing networks to controllable tests

run by professionals with world-class credentials."

The product runs on personal computers or laptops running Microsoft Corp.'s

Windows 2000 and can test any operating system that can communicate over

the Internet.