Above Top-Secret

Sep 1, 2007 12:00 PM

Eight miles northeast of Dayton, Ohio, lies the headquarters of the Air Force Materiel Command, the branch responsible for keeping U.S. Air Force (USAF) weapon systems ready for war. Located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, it is one of the USAF's major command posts. Wright-Patt, as it is known, spans sections of two counties and is classified as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF).

SCIF is commonly — but incorrectly — thought to be a classification level or specific clearance status for top-secret documents and data. However, SCIF actually refers to ultra-secure methods of handling sensitive information. Given its SCIF status, recent upgrades to Wright-Patt's infrastructure made updated security systems a necessity. Dayton-based Copp Systems Inc. integrated new access control, intrusion detection and sound-masking systems with audio/visual, telephone and data-handling equipment in several buildings at the base.

Copp Systems' Craig Gray, a project engineer on the job, says he wasn't sure what went on in the buildings he worked in. “Regardless of what they were doing in there, what I do know is that we left the facility secure on virtually every level,” he says.

Founded in 1920, systems integrator Copp Systems grew and succeeded in its early days by installing radios in private homes. Today, Copp specializes in the sale, design and installation of security and communication systems. The design/build firm has finished work on several of Wright-Patt's corporate-style conference rooms, as well as a 500-seat auditorium. The project is scheduled to be completed by Nov. 1.

Copp installed security components from DAQ Electronics, Piscataway, N.J., to manage access at all of Wright-Patt's interior and exterior doors. Both a card swipe and a personal identification number are required for entry; a card swipe is also required to exit. The company chose ADT Security for intrusion detection. These systems sense motion at all possible entry points, within rooms themselves and on floors and ceilings, depending on the level of security required in a particular area.

“Sound and silence were given equal consideration within our plan,” Gray says. “Privacy can be a relative term as it relates to conversation in other facilities, but here there aren't any chances for making excuses. To maintain confidentiality where it was critical, we relied on sound-masking.”

Sound-masking, which covers or masks conversations, has long been used in open office spaces and other areas where privacy is critical. It generates electronic sounds and broadcasts them over loudspeakers to add privacy.

Copp Systems mounted sound-masking systems from Dynasound, Norcross, Ga., along windows in a semi-public area that was commonly used for breaks outside of Wright-Patt's auditorium.

“These masking devices use a full-spectrum white noise generator that is so effective that eavesdropping is impossible,” Gray says. “Even if someone were to use a laser aimed through the windows as a microphone, it would be a futile effort. The masking noise itself seems little more than standard air-handling sounds you would normally hear from an HVAC system at work in a room.”

Additionally, closed-circuit television (CCTV) protection throughout Wright-Patt buildings comes from interior and exterior cameras working within a Bosch network. CCTV operations are managed from a main control room outfitted with seven 32-in. LCD monitors displaying 16 views each, as well as a single, 27-in. call-up monitor. A matrix switch links the intrusion detection and access systems via Recommended Standard 232 to the intrusion detection and access systems.

“We've given Wright-Patt the procedural tools to thwart unauthorized entry or eavesdropping, all in a package that is logical and operates in a sequenced fashion,” Copp Systems President Tom Frericks says. “With the systems we've deployed, vulnerability and risk are met with proven and comprehensive countermeasures. If there is such a thing, maybe we've even gone above top-secret in our approach and methodology.”

Copp Systems Inc. is a member of the National Systems Contractors Association (NSCA), a not-for-profit association representing the commercial electronic systems industry.

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