WEdge software earns glowing reviews

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U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. --  The Warfighter's Edge software developed by the Air Force Academy's Institute for Information Technology Applications recently received a clean bill of health from the Air Force agency developing scanning and discovering vulnerabilities in Air Force software applications. 

The software's latest test came when Team Juno, part of the Application Software Assurance Center of Excellence at Maxwell Air Force Base-Gunter Annex, Ala., visited the Warfighter's Edge, or WEdge, offices at the Academy Aug. 3-14. 

"This is one of the best teams we have ever assessed," said Omar Domentech, Telos Corporation's team chief for Team Juno. "The WEdge team displayed an uncommon commitment to securing their applications." 

Warfighter's Edge, or WEdge, is an intuitive briefing room system built for operational flying units to enhance pre-mission situational awareness. The system is Air Combat Command's briefing system of record and is free for all Air Force users. WEdge brings realtime information to warfighters through net-centric data sources and metatags similar to those used on popular blog and imaging sites. The "data tags" are arranged into a customizable format, dramatically reducing the time spent to manually retrieve, verify and organize mission information. 

WEdge is a follow-on to Briefing Room Interactive, where the idea of linking slideshow presentations with situational data was first developed. A growing interest in the program resulted in further WEdge development at the Air Force Academy. WEdge applications include the Warfighter's Edge Briefing System and the WEdge Web site. A WEdge Google Earth Viewer is still in development. 

"I have seen and met more than 400 developers and program management offices in the past two years, and WEdge is engaged in some of the most forward-looking projects I have seen in the Air Force," said Shakeel Tufail, a managing consultant with contractor Cigital Federal. 

The assessors from Team Juno scrubbed all software assurance areas within the software development lifecycle, from source code and database analysis to penetration testing and application shielding. The team scanned WEdge's Web application and attempted to crack the software and database using tools commonly used by attackers to find holes in a system's security. 

"I'm deeply proud of our team," said Lt. Col. Andrew Berry, WEdge program director. "We received absolutely amazing results from this training and assessment." 

Team Juno's goals were to install and train WEdge developers on how to use the software assurance center's software tools, provide the WEdge team with a basic overview of WEdge's application security profile, mentor developers in secure software programming, make recommendations on how to improve WEdge's security and establish a good relationship between the center and WEdge. 

Rustin Sides, a team chief for another software assurance center team, called the WEdge development team "a prime example of exactly what our team looks for in a security-conscious development team. 

"We found this assessment to be a guiding light for the Air Force to be proud of," Mr. Sides added. 

The glowing assessment means WEdge users can feel confident that their data is secure, said WEdge training manager Kirk Lipscomb. 

The Institute for Information Technology Applications develops research topics, selects researchers, administers sponsored research, publicizes results and hosts conferences and workshops to help share research findings to a wide range of private and government organizations. IITA also helps prepare Academy graduates for a high-technology Air Force by involving cadets as researchers.