Re: Army NOWHERE Near Completion of Migration to Defense Enterprise Email

Look CIO/G6 folks,

You guys are totally blowing it for the Reservists/National Guard. Get with OSD/DA/DISA/IA/TRADOC whomever you need, but please fix this festering boil of a EE migration. It is a utter failure to plan and more importantly, a failure of imagination. In 3-5 years when it is obvious leaders will be accessing their AKO via mobile devices, will you be a contributor to its effectiveness and security? Or will you be scrambling to meet way overdue suspenses and long neglected end-user requirements?

The choice is up to you. Senior Colonels, Flag rank, and SES's, I'm looking at you. FIX THIS PROBLEM, and if possible, be more transparent about it, with better communications and training/FAQs/instructions!

Thanks.

V/R,

SSG Deployed
RC-S

Re: Army Nears Completion of Migration to Defense Enterprise Email

Although SSG Deployed's comments are a little harsh, I concur with his feelings that the DEE migration neglected to plan for the majority of the user population. BETA Mail was the test bed for DEE and proved very succesful. However, when the DEE migration happened many of the features were not included. Including the ability to BYOD, connect to the exchange from a personal system Outlook, and LDAP into the GAL.

The first step in any process is identification of the requirements. If you don't ask the majority of the users what they need, then you haven't identifed the requirements. Where the majority of the users access their official email from a non-DOD system, off NIPR access should be the priority. DEE is simply not ready for the mainstream. Also, pulling the email out of AKO makes AKO irrelevant. Moving to Enterprise SharePoint and milSuite will further attenuate the user groups. We need a combined capability platform in the vision of AKO, but with the horsepower to support the massive amounts of users and data. Finally, TRAINING! Train the users on how to use the capabilities so they aren't doing things like attaching documents to emails. This one step will eliminate the prbolem of PII spillage.

Re: Army Nears Completion of Migration to Defense Enterprise Email

I agree with SSG Deployed and MAJ TPU on all of their points but there is an even bigger problem lurking.

DEE WILL DIRECTLY CONTRIBUTE TO SECURITY ISSUES!

I have migrated to EE recently and can see that there are several major issues that are going to directly contribute to security issues. The first 2 are issues that will cause users to be unhappy which will cause issue 2 the security issue to happen.

Issue 1: NG/AR Have in the past used AKO email which could be accessed by password and on mobile devices this allowed mail clients and mobile devices to automatically notify users of messages. This is no longer possible and will result in missed critical communication sooner or later.

Solution: Assuming that having full mail access on a mobile platform is out there is an urgent need for Windows, OSX, iOS, Android, BB, and Windows mobile notification applications. This would allow a notice of new messages to remind the Soldier to check. Ideally the notice would include sender and subject.

Issue 2: Overly aggressive link and attachment removal. AKO attached "blocked" to url's in messages so if you really wanted to use it you could. The new blocking strips the url entirely. This will cause issues with some training sites that are used for important additional training that happens to not be on a .mil domain. I'm hoping .gov is also white listed but I've seen those url's blocked on AKO. This is really problematic for those of us in the Intelligence branch as the more sources of information we have access to the better so we have networks of sites across .mil, .gov, and several open source sites. The last of these will be highly problematic.
The other main issue, as reference by MAJ TPU in all caps TRAINING! I can't accurately tell how much of a problem this will be because I can't fine a list of what links or files will actually make it through.

Solution: There needs to be a way to add sites to a white list, possibly with approval, possibly by taking additional anti-fishing training. I would jump through a few extra hoops to have email I can use. File filters need to be reasonable.


Issue 3: Here is the security issue: Due to issue 1 & 2 Soldiers will increasingly uses personal free email in place of mail.mil. There is no way around it. Good security is a balance of security and usability. On this balance mail.mil has messed it up about as bad as possible.

Solution: If you want the part time force to use mail.mil you need to make it usable. Addressing the first 2 issues would be a major start. Figuring out some other type of authentication to allow mobile and client access use would be even better. Possibly a DoD VM that can be run and uses CAC authentication basically emulating a DoD computer for personal use.

I understand the need to centralize and improve the security of email, this however was not the solution. It is URGENT that these be addressed quickly before a large portion of the NG/AR stop using mail.mil and use gmail.com. Once they do it will be nearly impossible to force them back.

Re: Army Nears Completion of Migration to Defense Enterprise Email

If you sacrifice convenience for security you only add to the security problem...

In my battalion we have already started to implement a civilian email address roster. As the battalion S6 how am I supposed to communicate to commanders that they have to use this system for their soldiers? If they don't have CAC readers personal computers or Windows OSs.

You have effectively cut off their army secure communication and now they have to rely on third-party providers. Since they can't access their email from Library computers, cell phones, tablets, non-Microsoft OS!

If this was the civilian sector someone would have been fired, but instead they get a bullet on their OER, and helped contribute to making it that niche easier to security breaches when an email is sent outside the network!

You have to use silverlight, S/MIME with Internet Explorer to communicate in OWA. How about Safari, Chrome? No now your stuck with IE in windows only! Get off the Microsoft ban wagon and start adopting truly secure open platforms!

Implementing SMTP, IMAP, or exchange like Beta mail would fix the problems overnight!

Re: Army Nears Completion of Migration to Defense Enterprise Email

Full disclosure, I was never a big fan of AKO, but over the years we learned to use AKO and they added a few features (although the search is still ridiculous). We got along.

So, as a reservist, I had very good access to my email through AKO. With EE I have lost the ability to check my email on mobile devices (like Iphone). EE asks me to enter my CaC pin multiple times per session. The GAL and my contacts often crash when doing a lookup. Right now I am trying to send something to my UA and the systems seems to be down. We have become so dependant on email for communications and the new enterprise email does nothing but degrade this capability. It's just plain unstable and not ready for prime time.

On the civilian side I am a software engineer. My customers would NEVER accept such horrible service. Unfortunately we are forced to live with it (along with a ton of other shody applications DoD buys).

Finally, I'm not surprised that the army chose Exchange. It works fine in small deployments and has all the bells and whistles DoD looks for (like good proposal writers). But, as many in the IT industry will tell you it's lousy in large scale deployments.

Re: Army Nears Completion of Migration to Defense Enterprise Email

"To date we have successfully addressed the issue of access to DEE on personally owned desktops and laptops using OWA, and will continue to work the issue of access on smartphones and tablets."

Sir, please direct me to the information on how to access OWA on Apple OS X laptops so we can direct the soldiers that use other than Windows machines to the correct ref. site

Re: Army Nears Completion of Migration to Defense Enterprise Email

National Defense University IRMC (iCollege) students mustn't use DEE for their primary email for course registration due to the "link buster" web link blocking. Had to resort to gmail. Attempts to have the EE support team fix the issue resulted in a punt to the service component who must be blocking the sites. The frustration level rises after the transition from AKO (where the links had worked) to DEE where links meant to support soldier MWR and DoD sanctioned education are blocked.

Re: Army Nears Completion of Migration to Defense Enterprise Email

Firstly, as the CIO/G6 for the Army National Guard it is more imperative today than ever to ensure our networks and government information are secure. "The Army cannot afford the risk and vulnerability of unsecured personal mobile devices accessing Army email…” All users must be on a .mil domain, whether that means migrating to DoD EE, or using Web Mail (OWA.mil) or opting to remain on AKO temporarily. Most importantly is ensuring government information is protected.

Further, in accordance with Army Regulation the use of non .mil email for conducting Army business is a violation of AR 25-2 and spillage of data into the.com domain carries Fiscal and Legal penalties that the individuals involved may be held liable for.

However, from a RC and part-time soldier’s stand point I believe we are seeing the beginning of an on-going issue and that is why we are seeing the same message over and over again. Again, not from my stand point but from a part-time Soldier stand point, it is too difficult for them to access their DOD EE email thus they find a work around. I witness this fact with a personal friend of mine who is a part-time soldier in the USAR who no longer had AKO email and didn't have a CAC reader as hers was still packed from her deployment. We in the ARNG do not support work around answers but it is a bit like me as a teacher enforcing a no gum policy. I continue to educate the populace, I put out policy to support security of the network, and I can only correct the individual when I see it. I suggest we consider ways to make it easier for our part-time soldiers to accesses their email. I believe we will need to have a multi pronged approach because there are four things that a soldier must have to get to DoD EE email; broadband access, CAC reader, CAC, and a PC. Perhaps we should consider providing either a CAC reader or a Thursby read, as not all soldiers have broadband but most have a smart phone/data plans. I believe this is just the beginning of a larger issue. And more work needs to be done to address user concerns.

Reminder: Soldiers they can opt out of migration and/or get a CAC reader from their unit or even buy one off-the-shelf.

Re: Army Nears Completion of Migration to Defense Enterprise Email

COL Mary Henry,
Mam, this statement
Reminder: Soldiers they can opt out of migration and/or get a CAC reader from their unit or even buy one off-the-shelf. Just goes to show how far the disconnect is, guardsmen and reservists should not having to be purchasing one off of the shelf. Should not be having to do a work around, it should be user friendly. I hope this clears it up a little.

Defense Enterprise Email--Links in Emails Stripped

Aloha CIO/G6:

As you have heard already above, the new Defense Enterprise Email (DEE), has a lot of issues. One of the most frustrating for me is that the DEE is completing removing any hyperlinks embedded in emails. I receive a variety of military, education, training, personal emails that contain links that I can no longer access via this email system.

Further, if I had the sender direct those emails to my personnel email account, I cannot access my Google Gmail as now those sites are blocked per our organization's CIO policies. So now, if effects my productivity and ability to communicate with a variety of legitimate parties. Frankly, this whole email system has become worthless to me and I don't see any value in using it, as I do have an email account with Defense Logistics Agency, where I work that I will use to receive all my work related emails.

Understand there are a host of security issues, but with overall restrictive policies, you have killed one of the best things AKO offered, which was the email service. DDE, while a replacement, does not provide for same level of customer support. I am not an IT guru, but I know DDE is not working to meet my expectations. Perhaps that is some of the intent of this project, no matter, I am fully frustrated with DDE and find that it does not work for me.

Respectfully,
MAJ Struse

Error Page

I am still and have been getting an error page since March. Is there a solution to this? I have used government and home computers, same issue!!

Re: Army Nears Completion of Migration to Defense Enterprise Email

I am an Army contractor in Yongsan AG Korea. I have already migrated to DEE. My question concerns what E-mail addresses are displayed in the Global Address List (GAL). The only address that is currently listed in the GAL is my xx@mail.mil address. This is also the address shown in RED in my DMDC account. Is there any way to add my xx@us.army.mil (AKO) address back into the GAL?

Re: Army Nears Completion of Migration to Defense Enterprise Email

Mail.mil will be the new default email address. I recommend that if you have a CAC with us.army.mil as the default, change it to reflect mail.mil instead. This is to ensure that you do not have encryption/decryption issues, mobile issues, or certificate issues.

Re: Army Nears Completion of Migration to Defense Enterprise Email

While Enterprise email is certainly streamlining jumping between accounts when PCSing, it does not work very well in the iOS realm (MAC). This causes significant problems when trying to respond to emails from home using a MAC.

Re: Army Nears Completion of Migration to Defense Enterprise Email

I won't re-state all the comments I have read because I share the frustration of everyone here. It is funny how no one in the "know" answers these post. Terrible, terrible system. Bring back AKO at least my soldiers could access email from anywhere

Re: Army Nears Completion of Migration to Defense Enterprise Email

I am retiring soon, how will this EE transition affect me after retirement?

Re: Army Nears Completion of Migration to Defense Enterprise Email

As an MDAY company commander, I've lost significant capabilities with the migration to DEE including losing email on my iPhone. The issue that creates the biggest problem for the company command team is the tiny email box of 512 MB without the ability to connect my EE account to PST for backup. As an MDAY commander, I rely on email as the primary means of communication; I can't respond to many phone calls nor emails during the day due to my civilian job. As such, MDAY commanders need to ability to see months worth of emails at any given time, however, with this tiny mailbox size, it can barely handle a few weeks worth of doucments to sign, PPTs to read and create, OPORDs to write and review, FRG newsletters, drug packets, etc. Please increase the size of the mailbox immediately so that the company commander and first sergeants are not left without the tools to accomplish our jobs. After all, email is as much a combat tool as a rifle while in garrison and this mailbox size makes us NMC.

It's difficult enough to command a 100 Soldier unit and taking away our ability to store email just makes it nearly impossible.

Re: Army Nears Completion of Migration to Defense Enterprise Email

Good Morning,

I thought we were getting at least 2 GIGS for our Enterprise mail, but it's only 512 MB?

Please copy my email with your response.

Please advise

Thanks.

SFC Niski

Re: Army Nears Completion of Migration to Defense Enterprise Email

The 512mb limit is for basic users but some users can be upgraded to the 4GB limit based on need. This is managed through your chain-of-command and S6/G6 channels. Work with them to get upgraded.

Epic fail.

Email is a tool that is supposed to enhance the efficiency of our organization. Why is it that I am now spending all of my time, once spent training soldiers, dealing with email issues arising from your utterly incompetent implementation of this utterly unneccessary fix to a system that was working adequately? With this farce you have done more damage to our organization than any talib with an RPG could ever hope to do. Congrats, we have met the enemy and it is the G-6.

Epic fail.

Email is a tool that is supposed to enhance the efficiency of our organization. Why is it that I am now spending all of my time, once spent training soldiers, dealing with email issues arising from your utterly incompetent implementation of this utterly unneccessary fix to a system that was working adequately? With this farce you have done more damage to our organization than any talib with an RPG could ever hope to do. Congrats, we have met the enemy and it is the G-6.

So much fail, so little time.

Seriously? Is there any sort of planning for reality at any level any more? Mobile access needs to be returned yesterday. Who's bullet point is this nonsense? Unreal.

"Many users, especially in the National Guard and Army Reserve, have voiced concerns about losing access to AKO mail on their personal mobile devices. In addition some of the 6,000 Beta Mail users in a Microsoft program have voiced concerns about losing access to AKO mail via the Beta Mail’s more relaxed security."

And yet there is no progress on this major issue before implementation screws hundreds of thousands in an instant.

Re: Army Nears Completion of Migration to Defense Enterprise Email

As a National Guard Officer you have made my job 10x harder.
FIX THIS!

No mobile access (How am I supposed to support my COC and soldiers in a timely fashion?)
No one is going to use this. (now I constantly have to hunt down my soldiers email addresses. Nothing like sending an email to hotsoldier32@yahoo.com with the commander on copy. Also now emails are on non DOD servers)
Constant errors. This entire system is a Software Engineering FAIL.
Being prompted every 30 seconds for your CAC pin is FAIL.
But what takes the cake is STOP self signing your certificates it goes against the whole purpose of signing certificate registrars and makes this site INSECURE and UNUSABLE