Wing gets new Staff Agency, the Information Protection Office

  • Published
  • By Michael Ward
  • 341st Missile Wing Information Protection
MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, Mont. --  The Chief of Staff of the Air Force directed the establishment of an Information Protection Office effective Dec. 1. According to a memorandum to all Major Command and Direct Reporting Unit commanders, Gen. Norton Schwartz said, "Our capability to protect information is a key enabler to sustain air, space and cyberspace dominance and is essential to the success of the Air Force mission and warrants special attention by every echelon of command." 

At Headquarters Air Force, a process review on the policy portion of Information Protection was conducted in October of 2006. From that, a governance structure was put in place and a recommendation was made to export the process review to the MAJCOM and installation levels. Since August 2007, representatives from each MAJCOM formed an Integrated Process Team, developed a Concept of Operations, built a roadmap for conducting an Information Protection process review and began work to reengineer this function. The IPO was created at the MAJCOM and installation levels, reporting directly to the vice commander and was resourced from the existing information, personnel and industrial security positions, as well as the Chief, Security Forces Plans and Programs position. There will be no significant change concerning these programs to the customer. 

The goal of Information Protection is to prevent the compromise, loss, unauthorized access/disclosure, destruction, distortion or non-accessibility of information. This also includes actions to regulate access to sensitive information, controlled unclassified information and classified information produced by, entrusted to or under the control of the United States Government. This applies over the life cycle of the information regardless of form or characteristics of the information. 

Expansion of responsibilities and oversight to other wing programs concerning information protection are being developed and will be implemented gradually as the procedures are finalized. The key to these procedures is to strike a balance between protecting information and making it available for workers and decision makers at all levels to accomplish the mission. 

The IPO will be very active in ensuring effective processes are in place to provide a focused, seamless, functional and supportive environment for protecting our information. The IPO is located in Building 300, Room 140 with telephone extensions 731-6477, 731-6453, 731-6616 and 731-4105.