IA wins AF award

The Air Force Information Dominance Outstanding Information Assurance Element went to the 86th Airlift Wing Information Assurance Office Jan. 7.

This is the first time members of the wing’s IA office have won the award, and they competed against members of every base and detachment in the Air Force with an IA work center.

With 11 assigned members, the 86th AW IA office is one of the largest in the Air Force, and it has some significant responsibilities in the wing.

“On a day-to-day basis, we manage computer security programs for all the units across Ramstein Air Base and its globally separated units and assess and assist units with compliance to information systems guidelines and regulations,” said Master Sgt. Dennis Palmer, wing IA section chief. “Also, throughout the year, we stay informed on updated guidance and regulations for how we complete our mission.”

In addition to their normal duties, the wing IA office completed a variety of inspections and objectives.

“Over the past year, we’ve completed multiple tasks, including receiving an excellent rating on the command cyber readiness inspection and completing 124 unit information assurance program inspection and assistance visits for four countries,” Palmer said. “We’ve also directed encryption for unit organization boxes, secured personal information from theft and misuse, pushed the base wide SIPR login token program, and issued login tokens to all base users.” 

Over the course of the past year, those achievements spoke not only to the way the members of the wing IA office conduct business, but how they’ve made progress throughout the year.

“We are very proud to be recognized for our continued efforts to improve our programs and processes,” Palmer said.

The achievements couldn’t have been done without the Airmen who make up the IA office, he said.

“The wing IA team is a very dedicated, self-motivated group who are constantly looking for ways to improve and streamline the process of making our data more secure,” Palmer said. “They excel at customer service and finding the right answer to help leverage our information systems for increased productivity.”