OPSEC

[cakencandles]

Hey girls, I don't really know if this belongs here...feel free to move it to wherever you feel it's appropriate...

On another website I wrote a post saying how excited I am about Nick coming home in 2 weeks. It got edited to *** weeks. I sort of understand this, like if he was involved with troop movement or something, but he's just on a TDY, and he's getting on a plane all by himself, just like you or I would go and get on a plane. And I feel like girls post about this all the time, and they never get blanked out, on a few websites that I'm on.

I mean, I guess if someone REALLY wanted to hurt him, and they had saved ALL my posts, they could guess where he is and where he's going, but I don't really think I'm putting anyone in danger here. Anyway, let me know what you think, is this really an OPSEC violation?

[Martina]

I don't know but if this was at MGs, maybe you should PM the mods and talk to us about it. Was this there or ar another board??

[cakencandles]

Nope, it was another one. I don't know why it's bothering me so much....I guess because I always try to be really careful about stuff like that.

[Renae]

Ok.

First off, two weeks is very vague. I don't know if you mean a literal two weeks or like an approximate two weeks. But because your two weeks can be left to interpretation, people can interpret it to mean exactly two week.

OPSEC isnt' clear. Nothing in security is clear...for example.

At work, we have a classified specification guide, and an unclassified spec. The unclass version, just has the classified stuff taken out. We have a guide that tells us what is classifed and what isn't. But it's all gray area. It's really hard to tell what is what. We find stuff in it all the time that is open to interpretation.

Basically, OPSEC is not a law, as I have said many times before. Therefore, there can't be OPSEC violations, except if people have made it a law on their forums. OPSEC is a way of trying to protect unclassified information, and people. Obviously, if I knew exactly where Nick was, his unit and his last name, I would probably have a pretty good chance of finding him. That's why I ask that we keep locations vague and dont' use last names.

I don't see that saying 2 weeks is a security risk to Nick. But next time, you can say a couple of weeks, this is more vague. Or use the word about or close to. Obviously you shouldnt' say he's going to be on this flight and this time...that's a security risk.

We use the term OPSEC because it's there. But you would do the same thing to protect yourself. You dont tell us your last name or where you live, and you wouldnt' tell us your flight times either. OPSEC is just a convenient term to use, but it's all just common sense.

So basically, just use common sense.

And lastly, there is no such thing as a OPSEC violation. I hate to act like I'm all high and mighty because I have a security clearance, but I do...I've been though countless security briefings. I'm not an expert, but I do know what I'm talking about...and I am so suprised that nobody else on these military boards is upset with the way OPSEC is portrayed....it's not a law!! Sorry, this just really bothers me, it's like a huge pet peeve of mine.

[cakencandles]

Thanks Renae. I don't know why that bugged me so much but it did. Like you said, I didn't give out so much information that anyone could find him. Actually, he doesn't even leave from where I said he was leaving from. I swear, I'm careful, which is why I got so defensive about my post being change. I mean, at the same time, I understand that they can't check with me, the "rules" have to be the same for everyone but....it made me feel stupid.