Before marrying my friend, my lover, and now, my husband who is a U.S. Marine. I never thought twice to see "My (Military Branch) comes home from [this town, this country] on [this date]" on the wall of a girlfriend's Facebook. Now, even as a fairly new Marine wife, it makes me cringe. Yes, thank you for putting your own, as well as other's lovers movements, locations, and information on the internet for the whole world to see, and potentially endangering the whole unit!
Yes, I use my family's first names on my blog. Yes, I use my state. I am not endangering myself to any further extent than that of which my Facebook publicly profiles. And my blog does not even link back to my Facebook, which also uses my last name. But that is my PERSONAL security, not the security, not the security of Military personnel, who may be deployed.
Do not endanger mine, yours, or anybody else's husband, wife, son, daughter, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, or friend!
Please do not post on mine, yours, or anybody else's Facebook, blog, Twitter, MySpace, email, webpage, forum, etc. about the guys' positions, unit locations, units deployed, weapons they possess or are trained with, missions they are going on, when they come home, or any other information about our troops! This includes photographs that might give away their locations, ect. AND also includes countdowns to deployment or return home! Do not assume that there is nobody watching. Even if you believe that they are not, you CANNOT know for sure, and once something is on the internet, it is there FOREVER. Also please do not think it is okay to post something because somebody else has already posted it on their site, you are just making the information available in more places if you post it as well.
What is OPSEC?
Operations Security, or OPSEC, is keeping potential adversaries from discovering our critical information. As the name suggests, it protects our operations planned, in progress, and those completed. Success depends on secrecy and surprise, so the military can accomplish the mission faster and with less risk. Our adversaries want our information, and they don't concentrate on only Military Members to get it. They want you, the family member.
Protecting Critical Information
Even though information may not be secret, it can be what we call critical information. Critical information deals with specific facts about military intentions, capabilities, operations or activities. If an adversary knew this detailed information, our mission accomplishment and personnel safety could be jeopardized. It must be protected to ensure an adversary doesn't gain a significant advantage. By being a member of the military family, you will often know some bits of critical information. Do not discuss them outside of your immediate family and especially not over the telephone.
Examples Of Critical Information
Detailed information about the mission of assigned units.
Details on locations and times of unit deployments.
Personnel transactions that occur in large numbers (Example: pay information, powers of attorney, wills, deployment information).
References to trends in unit morale or personnel problems.
Details concerning security procedures.
Puzzle Pieces
These bits of information may seem insignificant. However, to a trained adversary, they are small pieces of a puzzle that highlight what were doing and planning. Remember, the elements of security and surprise are vital to the accomplishment of our goals and our collective personnel protection.
Where and how you discuss this information is just as important as with whom you discuss it. Adverse agents tasked with collecting information frequently visit some of the same stores, clubs, recreational areas, or places of worship as you do.
Determined individuals can easily collect data from cordless and cellular phones, and even baby monitors, using inexpensive receivers available from local electronics stores.
If anyone, especially a foreign national, persistently seeks information, notify your military sponsor immediately. He or she will notify the unit OPSEC program manager.
What Can You Do?
There are many countries and organizations that would like to harm Americans and degrade our influence in the world. It's possible, and not unprecedented, for spouses and family members of U.S. military personnel to be targeted for intelligence collection. This is true in the United States and especially true overseas! What can you do?
Be Alert
Foreign governments and organizations collect significant amounts of useful information by using spies. A foreign agent may use a variety of approaches to befriend someone and get sensitive information. This sensitive information can be critical to the success of a terrorist or spy, and consequently deadly to Americans.
Be Careful
There may be times when your spouse cannot talk about the specifics of his or her job. It's very important to conceal and protect certain information such as flight schedules, ship movements, temporary duty (TDY) locations, and installation activities, for example. Something as simple as a phone discussion about where your spouse is deploying, or going TDY, can be very useful to our enemies.
OPSEC IS A FAMILY AFFAIR - DISCUSS OPSEC WITH YOUR FAMILY
All Family Members Are Part Of The Military OPSEC Team. They Need To Protect Information To Ensure The Safety Of All Our Soldiers, Sailors, Airman, Coast Guards, Civilians, And their Families.
You Are A Vital Player In Our Success!
As a family member of our military community, you are a vital player in our success, and we couldn't do our job without your support. You may not know it, but you also play a crucial role in ensuring your loved one safety. You can protect your family and friends by protecting what you know of the military day-to-day operations. That's OPSEC.
[above taken from an online site for info for OPSEC on the internet]
Before marrying my friend, my lover, and now, my husband who is a U.S. Marine. I never thought twice to see "My (Military Branch) comes home from [this town, this country] on [this date]" on the wall of a girlfriend's Facebook. Now, even as a fairly new Marine wife, it makes me cringe. Yes, thank you for putting your own, as well as other's lovers movements, locations, and information on the internet for the whole world to see, and potentially endangering the whole unit!
Do not endanger mine, yours, or anybody else's husband, wife, son, daughter, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, or friend!
Please do not post on mine, yours, or anybody else's Facebook, blog, Twitter, MySpace, email, webpage, forum, etc. about the guys' positions, unit locations, units deployed, weapons they possess or are trained with, missions they are going on, when they come home, or any other information about our troops! This includes photographs that might give away their locations, ect. AND also includes countdowns to deployment or return home! Do not assume that there is nobody watching. Even if you believe that they are not, you CANNOT know for sure, and once something is on the internet, it is there FOREVER. Also please do not think it is okay to post something because somebody else has already posted it on their site, you are just making the information available in more places if you post it as well.
Operations Security, or OPSEC, is keeping potential adversaries from discovering our critical information. As the name suggests, it protects our operations planned, in progress, and those completed. Success depends on secrecy and surprise, so the military can accomplish the mission faster and with less risk. Our adversaries want our information, and they don't concentrate on only Military Members to get it. They want you, the family member.
Even though information may not be secret, it can be what we call critical information. Critical information deals with specific facts about military intentions, capabilities, operations or activities. If an adversary knew this detailed information, our mission accomplishment and personnel safety could be jeopardized. It must be protected to ensure an adversary doesn't gain a significant advantage. By being a member of the military family, you will often know some bits of critical information. Do not discuss them outside of your immediate family and especially not over the telephone.
Examples Of Critical Information
Detailed information about the mission of assigned units.
Details on locations and times of unit deployments.
Personnel transactions that occur in large numbers (Example: pay information, powers of attorney, wills, deployment information).
References to trends in unit morale or personnel problems.
Details concerning security procedures.
Puzzle Pieces
These bits of information may seem insignificant. However, to a trained adversary, they are small pieces of a puzzle that highlight what were doing and planning. Remember, the elements of security and surprise are vital to the accomplishment of our goals and our collective personnel protection.
Where and how you discuss this information is just as important as with whom you discuss it. Adverse agents tasked with collecting information frequently visit some of the same stores, clubs, recreational areas, or places of worship as you do.
Determined individuals can easily collect data from cordless and cellular phones, and even baby monitors, using inexpensive receivers available from local electronics stores.
If anyone, especially a foreign national, persistently seeks information, notify your military sponsor immediately. He or she will notify the unit OPSEC program manager.
What Can You Do?
There are many countries and organizations that would like to harm Americans and degrade our influence in the world. It's possible, and not unprecedented, for spouses and family members of U.S. military personnel to be targeted for intelligence collection. This is true in the United States and especially true overseas! What can you do?
Be Alert
Foreign governments and organizations collect significant amounts of useful information by using spies. A foreign agent may use a variety of approaches to befriend someone and get sensitive information. This sensitive information can be critical to the success of a terrorist or spy, and consequently deadly to Americans.
Be Careful
There may be times when your spouse cannot talk about the specifics of his or her job. It's very important to conceal and protect certain information such as flight schedules, ship movements, temporary duty (TDY) locations, and installation activities, for example. Something as simple as a phone discussion about where your spouse is deploying, or going TDY, can be very useful to our enemies.
OPSEC IS A FAMILY AFFAIR - DISCUSS OPSEC WITH YOUR FAMILY
All Family Members Are Part Of The Military OPSEC Team. They Need To Protect Information To Ensure The Safety Of All Our Soldiers, Sailors, Airman, Coast Guards, Civilians, And their Families.
You Are A Vital Player In Our Success!
As a family member of our military community, you are a vital player in our success, and we couldn't do our job without your support. You may not know it, but you also play a crucial role in ensuring your loved one safety. You can protect your family and friends by protecting what you know of the military day-to-day operations. That's OPSEC.
Here is another place where you can read about OPSEC. http://www.opsecprofessionals.org/articles/OPSEC_Rules.html
