Security Issues When Data Traverses Information Domains: Do Guards Effectively Address the Problem?

Different governmental and military agencies share different types of information that are restricted from access by certain users. When this data must travel between networks of different security classifications, there arises the need for a guarding solution. A guard, simply stated, is a component or multiple components placed between networks to protect them and the information that passes between them. Government and military agencies use guarding solutions to further secure their networks and the information they contain. For the purposes of this document, the term government refers to the U.S. Federal Government. This paper is intended to present an overview of guards and the security considerations they intend to address. A description of information domains will be followed by an explanation of the need for security when they must be interconnected. The paper will then describe some of the security issues that are inherent in sharing data across those information domains. Finally, it will discuss the methods by which guards attempt to address those security issues and briefly describe some existing solutions to determine if guards are a solution to the problem.