JOINT BASE CHARLESTON, S.C. –
Operation Security, or OPSEC, is the process of protecting information about our missions that might cause harm if it fell into enemy hands. Even small insignificant details, when collected and assembled, have the potential of giving valuable data that can be exploited for their gain or our harm.
We in the Air Force have a security mindset as a part of being mission oriented, but it is just as important for our families to know the fundamentals of protecting information.
All forms of communications can and are monitored for useable information. Any web page can be hacked. Cell phones operate on radio frequencies that are easily captured. E-mails are very vulnerable. Even mail can be intercepted, read and resealed without detection. Any way that you can communicate can be exploited for hostile purposes.
What type of information should be protected? Names, dates and locations are the basic blocks of data that should be close hold. Think of all of the harmless bits of information you casually use day-to-day in your conversations with friends, family and acquaintances. Add those to the info that may be collected from other military families associated with your spouse's unit. When a network of spies - yes, spies - collect from several people, they end up with a very detailed picture of your deployed spouse's location, who he is with, and when he will return home - all of which can be exploited to catastrophic results.
One of the most potent weapons that hostile forces use against us is our pride. Let's say you want to show off a picture of your spouse on MySpace or Facebook. So, you post the photo he sent you of him wearing his desert flight suit from his deployed location. Chances are you will even caption it "Doing great at XXXX Air Base, only three weeks to go!"
You think you are safe because only your invited "friends" can access your page. But as I said before, any website can be hacked. Think about what Al Qaeda could do with the knowledge of where Jim is and that he only has three weeks left. They already know where he is stationed and what squadron he belongs to. They can take this information and search commercial flights for reservations. If they see a flight with a big group of American military on it, they might consider that a potential target.
We've discussed the dangers relevant to your deployed spouse. Now let's look at your situation. Consider that post we talked about in the last paragraph. You basically told the whole world your spouse is gone and definitely won't be home for the specified time ... leaving you alone. You just advertised, "Hey, I'm alone, I'm vulnerable and open to attack."
Am I being dramatic? No, not really. Your address, phone number, age, etc., is readily available online to anyone motivated to search for it. Don't believe me? Google your name, you will be surprised what pops up. You can also Google search other data like your address, your phone number, or even your old high school. The search possibilities are endless and our adversaries know them all.
In closing, any information that you choose to share, no matter how minor you think it may be, can be combined with other data and used against us. If anyone you don't know asks you for information, be very suspicious of them. Even if they appear to be legitimate. Consider these questions before you answer: Who are you? What will you do with this information? Who else will you tell?