OPSEC essential to mission accomplishment Published Aug. 10, 2012 By Airman 1st Class Jason Wiese 90th Missile Wing Public Affairs F. E. WARREN AIR FORCE BASE, Wyo. -- Airmen are trained to keep operational security at the forefront of their thoughts in any given situation. OPSEC is at the heart of every unit's mission, and it is up to all Airmen to be aware of how to use it to protect themselves, their families, their wingmen and their nation. "The [OPSEC] program is in place to deny our adversaries pertinent and critical information," said Jerry Siler, Air Force Office of Special Investigations Detachment 805 base investigative branch chief. According to the National OPSEC program publication, "A Pocket Guide to OPSEC," OPSEC is a continuous process. It lists the five steps to this process: determine critical information, analyze the threat, determine the vulnerabilities, analyze the risk and develop and implement countermeasures. The guide stresses individuals should not stop once these steps are taken, but continually retake them for each objective. "Apply the five-step OPSEC process to prevent the release of critical information," said Master Sgt. Jaime Kelly, 90th Missile Wing OPSEC program manager. "All counter measures are important when you're dealing with OPSEC." Actions taken to protect critical information should be evaluated for each undertaking, but there are certain preventative measures that Airmen should always keep in mind to maintain OPSEC. Kelly said Airmen should familiarize themselves with what is on their units' critical information list. Their units' OPSEC coordinators have critical information lists and they should be posted throughout units. Once Airmen are familiar with what information should be considered sensitive, they should be careful when speaking in public or engaging in social media, she said. "Don't post specific activities about your job on Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc.," she said. "An OPSEC violation can sometimes be inadvertent," Siler said. Most Airmen are not intentionally trying to release information. Sometimes individuals who are proud of what they do speak too freely about their job and release bits of useful information to our adversaries, he explained. These bits of useful information, when gathered, can be used to see the whole picture of an operation. This sort of collective data is called aggregate data, Kelly added. Social networking sites are the perfect place for enemies to gather aggregate data. Al Qaeda, for instance, gathers 85% of the information they use against the U.S. from open sources like social media, Kelly warned. "They're constantly looking," she said. "Not just terrorists, but anyone who wants to hurt the mission or make it harder to do your job." "Our enemies are trying to piece together a giant jigsaw puzzle," Siler said. "Some of the pieces to that puzzle include movements, locations and what level of access a person might have." It is also important to ensure Airmen let their families know what information they should not post in social media or speak about in public, said Kelly. Other methods of maintaining OPSEC include shredding documents containing critical information, using the appropriate devices for classified communication, encrypting documents sent electronically. Another thing to remember is that just because someone has the clearance to access critical information does not mean that they should access the information, Siler said. "Just because you have clearance doesn't mean you need to know." he said. "Curiosity is not a reason to disclose sensitive information." The bottom line is, Airmen need to be aware of their surroundings and pay attention to what they are doing, he said. If Airmen apply the OPSEC process and are still unable to determine whether an action would be an OPSEC violation, they can contact their supervisor, unit OPSEC coordinator or Wing OPSEC program manager for clarification, said Kelly. If these measures are not taken, there could be severe consequences. "I've seen first-hand the result of poor OPSEC," Siler said. "The worst case scenario of an OPSEC violation is a loss of life, loss of intelligence and a loss of national security," Siler said. He added that once critical information is compromised, units must change their tactics, so the man-hours previously put into their endeavors may have been for nothing. No one person is responsible for OPSEC, said Kelly. OPSEC is one of the things, like attention to detail and the wingman concept, that have had their importance stressed to Airmen since the very first day they donned the uniform, and like those things, OPSEC only becomes more important as Airmen take on more responsibility.