Defense Message System
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The Defense Message System or Defense Messaging System (DMS) is a deployment of secure electronic mail and directory services in the United States Department of Defense.
DMS has replaced the AUTODIN network, and is based on implementations of the OSI X.400 mail, X.500 directory and X.509 public key certificates, with several extensions to meet the specific needs of military messaging. DMS has been coordinated by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), and testing began in 1995.
DMS is fully operational and currently in sustainment mode DMS is now evolving to meet new user requirements. The most significant change in DMS over the past few years has been the adoption of Domain Fortezza where the end user Fortezza cards are re-located to with message server. This technology improves user performance and useability. First generation Domain Fortezza solutions were AMHS by Telos and Decision Agent by Northrop Grumman. The latest version of this solution is a joint solution developed by Microsoft, its strategic partner Boldon James and Lockheed Martin. The new DMS is known as CMS and is based on Microsoft Exchange and Outlook Web Access. Early evaluations suggest that the price/performance/useability/functionality benefits of CMS represent an order of magnitude improvement over earlier Domain Fortezza solutions.
Amongst other vendors, Microsoft sell versions of their electronic mail software (Outlook/Exchange that have been tested for compliance with DMS requirements.
The complexities of the original user interface and desktop Fortezza cards have limited the overall deployment of DMS. However, the Army is currently experimenting with a version of DMS that utilizes Outlook Web Access instead of a dedicated Outlook Solution. It is likely that this CMS solution will be widely deployed.
Security of DMS
The DMS system has been rigourously and positively validated for security vulnerabilities and has met all the challenges thrown at it. A benefit of the ubiquitous Microsoft Exchange and Outlook platforms in DMS and CMS is the high exposure of the product in the commercial market and the subsequent immediate threat-fix programme available from Microsoft. This exposure creates strength approach gives the Exchange and Outlook solutions considerable security advantages over systems that have proprietary or less popular core components.
DMS and it's replacement CMS support the ability to assign prioritise to messages (such as FLASH and IMMEDIATE). The system prioritises these messages to ensure that they jump queues and get delivered in an appropriate timeframe.