SUFFOLK, Va. — Tucked away in an unassuming corner of Suffolk, beyond barricades and barbed wire, sits an elite Navy force fighting a war that's also hidden in plain sight.
"If we do our job right, we've already won the war," declared Captain Kelvin McGhee. He oversees Naval Network Warfare Command. The Navy relies on captain McGhee's team to build and maintain military cyber networks around the world.
"We make sure that the war fighters have the command and control to be able to launch weapons and precisely put weapons in the right place," McGhee told me during a recent visit to the compound. The Navy offered me an exclusive invitation to go inside the command, one of the most secure in Hampton Roads.
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If you think of the Navy's cyber network as a house, this is the team that builds it from the ground up.
"I want to make sure I have a good structure when I build that house, want to make sure I got good sensors, I got a good alarm system, that everything is secure as it can possibly be," McGhee explained.
Just down the hall from Captain McGhee's office, sits his counterpart, Captain Sharon Pinder.
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"My job is when that alarm goes off, to go in like the SWAT team and kick open the door," Pinder told me.
She leads the Navy's cyber defense operations, defending networks that impact all of us. Even beyond military assets, her team monitors threats to banks, hospitals, and beyond.
"Then you think about your water, your power, things that you need that are vital parts of our infrastructure here in the United States, that all has to be defended, because everything typically connects to the internet," she said.
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It is a non-stop effort, with more than a thousand sailors and civilians keeping watch in Suffolk around the clock.
"We've seen more breaches, more sophisticated attacks," Pinder said. "The adversary is just getting better." The sheer number of incidents is astounding. "On an average day, we see about 8 billion unique events every 24 hours." said Commander Nick Goddard.
Goddard leads one of the the groups defending these cyber networks. His teams staff the continuous watch floor at the Suffolk command. During my visit, Goddard explained the enemy can be anywhere so his teams have to be everywhere.
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"The threat will never go away, so the price of peace is eternal vigilance," he added.
While at the command, I also asked about things all of us at home can do to be safer online.
There are five key takeaways. The biggest is to use two-factor authentication. That's where after entering your username and password, you're required to verify your identity in a second way, perhaps through a code sent to your phone or email.
"That's allowing the system to truly recognize that it's you, because only you have that phone, or only you have that email, so you would know the password." explained Petty Officer Ryan Cendejas. "Having the access to that email or phone is what's going to make a difference," he added.
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Here are the other suggestions the Navy experts offered:
Never share your password — Even if it's someone you know, or think you know, keep that login information private. No banks or utilities will ever ask for your password, except as part of your secure login.
Beware of links in text and email messages — If you get something from an unfamiliar number or email address, or even something unexpected from someone you do know, don't click. Reach out to the person or company directly to respond.
Don't overshare on social media — Your location, names of family members names, etc., are all digital breadcrumbs the bad guys can follow to use against you in convincing you or your loved ones they know you. They can even use that information, as part of a scam, to impersonate you.
When in doubt, check it out — If something seems wrong, it probably is.
News 3 photojournalist Lydia Johnson contributed to this report.
