Office of CIO Communication

Information is one of our most valuable assets, and protection of our information and information systems is an enterprise-wide priority. Threats such as information theft, hacking and cyber-espionage can cause severe damage. As these threats become increasingly pervasive, combating the unauthorized access to DoD computer systems has become a monumental struggle.

More than ever, Information Assurance (IA) has become crucial to information protection in today’s world of increasing security threats. DoD defines IA as "measures that protect and defend information and information systems by ensuring their availability, integrity, authentication, confidentiality, and non-repudiation. This includes providing for the restoration of information systems by incorporating protection, detection, and reaction capabilities."

The roles and responsibilities of the NAVAIR Office of CIO IA staff are complex and multi-faceted. The IA Department focuses on a multitude of activities required to sustain NAVAIR's security posture on a day-to-day basis. At the most basic level, IA ensures authorized users have access to information as required. Equally important, every Federal and DoD organization is required to establish compliance policies, procedures, standards, and regulations that address the wide range of security issues and the increasingly complex regulatory and technological issues.

IA requires constant vigilance. Although the number of security incidents has risen dramatically, there are a large percentage of actual incidents that go unreported. In most cases, organizations are unable to recognize that their systems have been penetrated or are reluctant to report incidents.

NAVAIR IA Office takes security vulnerabilities seriously and encourages NAVAIR personnel to report all IT-security related vulnerabilities and incidents so they can be quickly and appropriately addressed. For more information and a list of Site IA Managers, visit the IA section of the Office of CIO Web site at https://cio.navair.navy.mil or contact your site IA Officer.