DoD Visitor Capability Recognized with DoD CIO Award
DISA’s DoD Visitor team was awarded 4th place in the 2010 DoD Chief Information Officer (CIO) Awards. The award is the highest honor granted for achievement in information management and information technology, and 2010 is the 10th anniversary of the awards. Eight finalists were chosen for recognition from among 70 nominations DoD-wide.
Winners were recognized at the DoD CIO executive board meeting, chaired by Dave Wennergren, outgoing DoD deputy CIO, on Wednesday, Oct. 27.
What is DoD Visitor?
DoD Visitor is one capability of the broader Enterprise User activity — the objective of which is to allow DoD users to be able to say with certainty, “I can go anywhere in the DoD, login, and be productive.”
Essentially, DoD Visitor allows any user with a DoD Common Access Card (CAC) temporary access on any computer when they are away from their “home domain” (their normal duty station).
The capability makes it possible for deploying users — who often experience significant delays in receiving end user devices (computers) and/or accounts — to log in and be productive on their very first day in a new location.
It also allows users who are travelling (TDY) to be productive using government systems, without having to go to a private sector WiFi provider — such as a coffee shop or hotel — to access their virtual private network (VPN).
Recognizing that nearly every DoD user either travels or deploys, the DoD Visitor software utility has the potential to affect nearly every person in the department’s ability to perform their mission.
Speed of Delivery
This capability was developed, certified, accredited, and granted a fielding decision in only 5 months.
The software is now available, and is being installed on all Windows domain controllers connected to the NIPRNet throughout the DoD.
It is being deployed on the NIPRNet first because the public key infrastructure (PKI) is already in place. DoD Visitor will be provided to SIPRNet users once hard tokens — like the CAC — are available and required for system login.
Additional Benefits
DoD Visitor improves network security by reducing the need to bypass security controls (i.e. allowing a user to access systems under administrative login), share passwords, or to create excessive trust relationships between systems.
DoD will save between $10 and $50 million dollars per year once DoD Visitor is deployed department-wide. Cost savings are realized through reduced manpower to administer accounts, fewer security instances requiring labor intensive responses, and improvements in user productivity.
