The Range Commanders Council Cybersecurity Group met at White Sands Missile Range Aug. 16 to discuss common challenges, processes, and solutions to foster collaborative efforts.

Cybersecurity Group meets at WSMR

The Range Commanders Council Cybersecurity Group met at White Sands Missile Range Aug. 16 to discuss common challenges, processes, and solutions to foster collaborative efforts.

The Range Commanders Council (RCC) was created to promote credible change to meet DoD developmental and operational test and training requirements while promoting the common good of its members; and enhance sharing and interoperability of infrastructure and resources.

RCC efforts seek to preserve and enhance the nation's war fighting superiority by ensuring that affordable technical capability and capacity are available to test and operate the world's most effective weapons systems and to train the Warfighters who use them.

"I am excited that we were able to gather in-person for the 14th CSG meeting,” said Erik Sortomme, Chief, Cybersecurity, and CSG Secretariat. “I am grateful for the exceptional leadership demonstrated by Tristan Gilbert and Lindsay Barker as the CSG Chair and Vice Chair. Their contributions were instrumental to the success and productivity of the last two years of virtual meetings. However, in-person meetings hold significant value for information exchange, creative thinking, networking, and overall engagement," Sortomme said.

Tristan Gilbert, (acting) White Sands Test Center Technical Director is the CSG Chair.

WSMR Commander Brig. Gen. Eric Little and WSMR Executive Director Robert Stone welcomed participants to the event.

“I am encouraged to see all the services represented,” Little said. “I challenge you to look at the procedures and policies and to challenge them.”

Stone told the group that cybersecurity in the RCC is critical right now. “What you are doing is not just important, but it is probably one of the most relevant things going on in the RCC.”

Over the next three days the group will go over range reports and attend several working sessions before going on a tour of the range.

The RCC is comprised of 19 premier test, training, and operational ranges and Major Range Test Facility Bases with membership across the Army, Navy, Air Force, and NASA.

The RCC Cybersecurity Group (CSG) is one of twelve standing groups whose charter is to address, support, and guide the Cybersecurity of the Test and Evaluation (T&E) community in support of its mission.

Sortomme said the White Sands Test Center hosted the 14th RCC CSG in-person meeting after two years of virtual meetings due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The CSG actively requests, reviews, and distributes Cyber threat information in support of a holistic organizational risk management strategy. The group identifies common challenges, processes, and solutions to foster collaborative efforts which encourage standardization and re-use of appropriate solutions.

The CSG is comprised of key technical and Cybersecurity professionals from test and support organizations who seek to reduce the overall Cyber risk of the DoD's test infrastructure. The CSG's key focus areas are to identify and recommend Cybersecurity resources for T&E infrastructure, provide guidance to test organizations, establish a forum for idea exchange, recommend security engineering best practices, and influence Cybersecurity policy and processes. Key functional responsibilities are improving the test range accreditation process and product submissions, standardizing inter-range reciprocity, and sharing of best practices.

By Miriam Rodriguez

WSMR Public Affairs