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Operations security is everyone's business

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman John Gordinier
  • 20th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. --  "Email is not private", "Weathermen predict thunderstorms. You can predict threats to your organization."

Posters with these sayings are posted all over the base in an effort to enhance operations security awareness.

So what does that mean to Airmen?

Master Sgt. Chris Thompson, 20th Fighter Wing OPSEC program manager gives one example where OPSEC is crucial.

"Not long ago, a military member had a personal blog and used it as a diary of his days while deployed to Iraq as a military police officer," Sgt Thompson said. "He had photos of himself in his uniform in most of the places within a tent city; he talked about tactics and how they were changing. The member documented his day with details down to the hour about where he was, what times the dining facility was open, and when it was crowded," he added.

But one day the tent city was attacked with mortars. Even though no one was harmed, the same military member later went on his blog and documented the incident. He divulged information about where the launchers were positioned in regards to the base perimeter, what rounds they used, how many, and where they could have been moved to cause more damage.

Two days later there was another attack. This time, they didn't miss and lives were lost.

"The member should not have talked about job duties, operations, or the results of attacks on a public Web site," Sergeant Thompson said. "Also, the pictures of him in uniform all around the tent city gave viewers a better idea of how the installation was constructed and where certain facilities were," he said.

OPSEC is a process which is used to identify sensitive information and to provide protection of the information. Identified sensitive information, also known as critical information, is unclassified -- that if collected and combined could reveal insight to classified operations.

"The purpose of OPSEC is to prevent or provide countermeasures for an adversary getting information that could give them an advantage and degrade or neutralize our military capability," Sergeant Thompson said.

"If OPSEC is not practiced properly, the military's plans, intentions and missions can be completely countered," he said. "The results could be a whole lot of time, effort and money wasted or even worse -- it could cost precious lives."

Master Sgt. Jarrod Davis, 20th FW alternate OPSEC manager said, "It is your job to know what is on the critical information list and to protect it. Everyone's job is different and every job has some sort of critical information; know what you can talk about and if you don't know, then learn where to find it," Sergeant Davis said.

Anyone can protect information by using "line up", "line down", and "unsecured line" announcements for telephone conversations.

Airmen should protect information by ensuring positive control and shredding it when it is no longer needed. It is information that should not be discussed in open places or over unsecured lines or radios. Also, critical information should only be shared on a need-to-know basis.