Wide range of solutions available for various applications

The government commands a lot of information in data centers, local municipalities, homeland security, health, and every touch that governments have with private citizens and companies. The data can be classified, private and public-facing as in forms. All of this data lives somewhere, and all of it needs transmitting at some point. The preferred method of carrying that data will vary on the type, location, and distance of the data.

For more secure data transmissions, the choice for government installations has historically been either shielded copper or fiber. Each solution has a range of options and supported applications. To further complicate things, there are also wide ranges of solutions for the various applications. A further consideration is the longevity of the system. While most government buildings are owned and will have a long lifecycle, there are temporary government installations that may require a different set of criteria.

Procurement methods for the government are also different, and ideally, the government procurement officials enforce open systems and equal evaluations for bidding, unlike the private sector where incentives may apply. Some suppliers provide rebates and incentives for specifying their systems as the first or only supplier listed on bid documents. Holding a sole specification on a government bid is harder to do barring the absence of an “or equal,” but where private contractors write the bid documents or provide the materials procurement for installations, or equal enforcement does not always occur. Even the “made in America” preferences may fall by the wayside.

As to the type of cabling, selection depends on whether or not the cabling will reside in a classified environment, the type of signal to be carried and the environment of the installation. For fiber in classified/ secret environments, the connections are generally keyed and color-coded assuring that only specific equipment gains physical access to the cabling media. While this seems rather rudimentary, if you can’t connect to a network you can’t harm it, either. No “accidental” snooping or connections are allowed. In fact, for highly classified systems and installations, it is unlikely that one could get access to the building even to try to connect to the fiber.

This article originally appeared in the January/February 2019 issue of Security Today.

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