Interview Script

Host 1: Craig Miranda
Host 2: Reagan Goulla

Opening Music*

Host 1: Hello and welcome back to another episode of Old Corps radio! Today we had a unique opportunity to meet with MAJ Doug Wainwright we got to sit down with and talk to him about what he does here for VMI with the Information technology department as well and the computer and inforamtion science department, he let us know a little bit about his background we do have pretty extensive interview about his background and what he has done with his career, I know a lot of cadets are wondering, particularly in the CIS department but the reason we interviewed him today is because a lot of cadets are concerned about the VMI wifi and all the different issues that come with the network and different attacks and why it keeps crashing, a lot of questions we do not have answers to so hopefully MAJ Wainwright will be able to shed some light for you guys. In just a short moment here we’re going to be able to listen to that interview so stay tuned for more.

Transition music*

Host 1:: And we’re back! In just a few moments we’re gonna take a look at the interview. What the IT department tells us what is wrong with the internet is that the shear overload from amount cadet users that are on it. What do you think about that cadet Goulla?

Host 2: So I find that very interesting that the amount of usage by our cadets is what really slows down our internet. Who knew and here we are just blaming it on the internet itself. Another question that comes to my mind is how secure is our network really? And how many attacks do we get daily. These are just a few of the questions that we asked Mr. Doug Wainwright.

Interview:
MAJ W: The VMI network is very secure, we have whole list of policies and procedures or bank of policies and procedures that help us mitigate any malicious activity directed at .vmi.edu. It it is yes it is, in fact right now since we’ve spoken .vmi.edu has been attacked 1,000 times, more even 10,000 times.

Host 1: Now I found that astonishing, up to 10,000 times just in the short period we interviewed MAJ Wainwright.

Host 2: You know that was interesting. The soundbite that really stuck out to me is there any examples of VMI being attacked or infiltrated and how secure are we really? Maj Wainwright really addresses and answers this question.

Interview:
MAJ W: No no, not that I’m aware of, we did have a Chinese hacker for lack of better terms come in Kilborne hall for the nipper net, the nipper net does not pertain to the army or navy its for the military. However, what they were able to do was come in through a CAC card or a common access carrier card are ya’ll familiar with that? I used to have one but they’re very special to get but when you don’t need it anymore they take it back away from you, years ago it used to be good for 5 years but now we’re much more security conscious it needs to be renewed every year. Again Wainwright to you have a need to get on base on Scott Air Force base or belvoir or anything like that, if you don’t you don’t need that CAC card. Someone this hacker was coming in through the CAC card, I don’t know how. But basically they just sat there and did nothing just watching traffic. So could this could have been apart of a long term data gathering so that when its General Goulla and General Miranda hey we know you got boned for running the block when you were a cadet we don’t want that to get out do we? It could be any number of things apparently this entity was just sitting there waiting and probably just gathering data, it’s possible not necessarily probable.

Host 1: Yeah I’m going to have to agree with MAJ Wainwright, I don’t think I would want anybody to get ahold of my records here at VMI whether they’re outstanding or not we’ll leave that up to you to use your imagination but ya know he brings up a great point of how the wireless network isn’t necessarily vulnerable but internally there are ways to take advantage and that’s something we need to pay attention to moving forward in the future.

Host 2: You’re definitely right that these are things we look for in the future. And on that topic of future, when we were in the interview room we were surrounded by boxes and boxes of gadgets and gizmos. And I went ahead and asked major Wainwright what will we be able to use as cadets in the future.

Interview: MAJ W:
Look around you. This stuff needs to get out there. I was telling that to cadet Miranda yesterday. That is a 3d printer. It’s the biggest 3D printer that I have ever seen. The print area is like this- you can print uh you know an architectural diagram. [Host 2: So when do you think cadets will get their hands on this stuff?] I don’t know this just came in two weeks ago. I don’t even know how to plug it in yet. But we’re gonna get there. And this box that I just showed you right before coming in here, is two microsoft hollow-lens virtual reality platforms is what i think they call it. We also have whats called an oculus rift i am in the process of pricing out for everyone. Its got the same kinda thing google’s uh [host 2: virtual reality kinda thing?] yeah mixed reality, virtual reality. And i’m gonna see how all those things work. However that being said we do have the cyber security lab we will be building and in the process of building cyber security type events on there. We are going to have capture the flag type thing on one of the servers there. We’ll have a attack defend type scenario. These are all cyber security stuff like binary exploits, encryption, breaking encryption, password fracking and all that good stuff. So these are all things i want to do. But i do want to have – i want to get these things out as soon as possible. We got some construction going on this summer. So a lot of what you see in here is just hanging out in here until the construction is done upstairs. But yes we got plenty of things to do. We also got an internet connection coming in for our own CIS internet connection. We will have our own servers that we will be hanging off of that. And i was literally working with col. Eltoweissy on the licensing of this and the hardware. You can see that we got some work getting ready to come in and you can see we got some more things coming in i just don’t know what they all are. We still got a lot of drones, we need cadets to get the drones and start- dogfighting them over the parade ground or something. Do you think Stonewall Jackson envisioned drones over the parade ground? [ host 2: who knows sir, anything is possible] Anythings possible.

Host 1: Yeah and anything is possible, it’s pretty amazing to see how much the institute has changed over the many years that it has been around; over 176 years I can’t imagine what some of the founders would say especially with the computer science program, at a loss for words Im sure they must be and it’s been an awesome treat to having MAJ Wainwright here to talk with us about some of the issues with the network and different security issues here at VMI from a cyber standpoint it’s been an awesome time having him on the Old corps radio. This will conclude our segment, we will see you again next week on the Old corps channel.