From the 2-19 BN admin: I hope this will help further your understanding of why our rules have to be enforced. The safety of all of the trainees and cadre assigned to this unit will always remain our top priority. What Is OPSEC? Operational 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 do not concentrate on only soldiers to get it. They want you, the family member. 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’s safety. You can protect your family and friends by protecting what you know of the military’s day-to-day operations. That’s OPSEC. 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 we’re doing and planning. Remember, the elements of security and surprise is 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. Adversary 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. Application to OSUT families: Understanding and applying OPSEC is essential to all military families. Although training events and graduation of OSUT is not secret information, it is still imperative for family members to be cognitive of OPSEC and ensure they are keeping themselves safe. Posting on Facebook when your soldier completes OSUT may not necessarily be an OPSEC violation; however, it is a safety violation nonetheless. Telling others, especially on a broad social media website such as Facebook, that your loved one is not home or that the house is empty (while you attend graduation etc) is never a good idea. As your soldier moves to his duty station, all of the above information will apply. It is of utmost importance to ensure that as OSUT concludes all military families understand OPSEC and are applying OPSEC rules and regulations to their conversations including social media postings/conversations.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 02:17:37 +0000
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