We hear about it all the time–OPSEC and PERSEC for military families. This is how we keep service members and their families safe. But do we really know what we can and can’t say on the internet, via email or to people in real life?
Unfortunately, I don’t think there is enough education out there for spouses, families and the rest of the civilian world. I will often see OPSEC violations multiple times per week in Facebook groups.
All of this isn’t meant to point fingers at individuals because if multiple individuals are continuing to unknowingly violate OPSEC, then this is clearly a system-wide education issue.
Let’s ditch the military jargon and break OPSEC and PERSEC down in terms and examples anyone can understand.
OPSEC 101: Things you can’t say.
1. Don’t share specific information about the mission of assigned units.
AKA…don’t go on Facebook and post “The troops of 4th company are going to tackle the minions in Nowheresville. Please pray for them. Hugs and kisses.”
2. Don’t share specific dates and locations of deployments.
AKA…don’t go on Twitter and post “Omg…I’m so sad. My hairy lover leaves for Timbuktu in 6 days. How will I ever make it through?”
3. Don’t list your service member’s specific job on the internet.
AKA… “My husband just got promoted to Sergeant over at 2nd PLT, ALPHA company. Couldn’t be more proud!”
4. Don’t share you service member’s exact location overseas.
AKA… “My sweets is working so hard over at FOB Sanders in Nowheresville. Can’t wait for him to come home!”
5. Don’t share anything about unit moral or equipment.
AKA… “Doesn’t sound like the troops are faring too well over there in Nowheresville. He said they are sleeping in freezing conditions and they don’t have any weapons. What should I do??! I’m so worried for him.”
6. Don’t share anything about deployment schedules or itineraries.
AKA… “Looks like they are moving to exercise Bazinga on December 13 and should be headed to Nowheresville by December 16. Hoping they stay on schedule and come home right on time!”
7. Don’t share exact dates your service member is scheduled to return from deployment.
AKA… “ONLY 11 more days to go! I can hardly wait! I’m using this awesome countdown timer so we can all keep track.”
Other things to consider:
- Don’t post pictures that would give away your service member’s exact location.
- Make sure all metadata is stripped from pictures, which may contain exact date, time and locations that the photo was taken.
- Don’t post or share EVER about unit casualties until you are 100% certain that next of kin is notified and the information is publically released.
- Turn your own phone location setting to off. There really is no need to share your current location with the world of social media.
OPSEC 101: Things you can say…
“I love my Marine, Sailor, Airman or Soldier.”
“My service member is leaving this summer.” (Even saying the month is fine.)
“Looking forward to my service member coming home soon.”
“So proud of everything he’s accomplished.”
“Right now he’s deployed to Iraq.”
“Missing him / her everyday.”
Just keep it simple. As a general rule of thumb, the more vague the better. Sharing anything “exact” is likely a violation. Sharing ballpark or big picture ideas…better choice.
Other things to consider:
- Please know that anything you post (even on a private FB page) can be made public. Anyone can screenshot, hack into messages or email accounts and share the information with an adversary.
- Take caution with using anything to identify yourself as a military family. It’s a simple extra step of protection you can take. (i.e. bumper stickers on cars, hangings in your windows).
OPSEC and PERSEC make it sound like a killjoy for everyone. But ultimately, these simple guidelines are in place to help keep military families and service members safe from adversaries (anyone who may want to hurt us).
I’ve never even heard of these acronyms. Thanks for sharing a bit about them, this is good stuff to know for sure!
Definitely!
Thanks! As a new spouse its good to know exactly what is and isn’t allowed!
You’re welcome!
Love the humor to make an important point! Great post!
Yes. Humor always makes this more memorable…at least for me 🙂
Thank you so much for posting this. It’s something important that a lot of well meaning people don’t take the time to learn.
Thank you so much for this. My boyfriend is getting deployed for the first time pretty soon, so I’m still trying to learn about all this.. *fish out of water*
Same here!
I am a very proud navy mom and I was so tempted to post as my FB cover photo a signage that says PROUD MOM OF A U.S. SAILOR. But safety for my son comes first so I did not post it. But I miss my son terribly much….praying for him and all the brave men and women in the US military service.
Not to be argumentative- but how come unit FB pages are allowed to post info about promotions but it’s a violation of OPSEC?
Great question, I see more things like this on “official” installation or unit pages that I would consider OPSEC and would never post. I do not even like to post photos of my husband or others in uniform let alone pictures on the flight line, on the planes, with equipment, etc.
Unit pages and news sources are NOT violating OPSEC nor PERSEC. Commands are pre-approved by the military branch to post certain things. Just as news sources as well. Once it’s been released to the public, neither OPSEC or PERSEC apply.
Great discussion. Sharing something that comes from an “official” installation is not an OPSEC violation. Sean, you’re right on that. Things that are posted by the military are events that have already happened. However, there are a few things to keep in mind. Many spouses may know troop movements before they actually happen. For example, if a spouse has a service member leaving on ship, she may receive a tentative itinerary of the deployment at a spouses pre-deployment brief. Sharing troop movements before they happen is an OPSEC violation. Here’s another aspect: When individuals are sharing troop movements they are often attached to a certain social media account where pictures of the service member and his / her full name may be present. This gives more information to adversaries who may want to do harm. On top of that, the spouse and family has reminded everyone that their service member is away…waving the hypothetical red flag to an adversary who may want to do harm to a family. Less is always safer.
promotions are not OPSEC, they are public information. you can easily google the information. and there is no personal information shared beyond name and MOS (number sequence)
also your example of “11 more days. I couldn’t be more excited” well that alone is neither OPSEC nor PERSEC as it doesn’t state anything regarding what is happening in 11 days. person could be graduating high school or college in 11 days for all you know. now YES if they say “11 more days until my husband is back on US soil” or along those lines, THEN yes you fall into OPSEC.
Beth, you’re absolutely right posting about promotions is not an OPSEC violation. It was simply an example of something that someone might post while sharing their service member’s exact job. Sharing rank is okay. Sharing the exact job associated with the rank gets into a grey area where an adversary could start putting pieces of information more easily together. Especially if that social media share includes a photo, which it often does. You’re also right that posting about something that will happen in 11 days doesn’t specifically mention a deployment. In that example, we could assume that spouse shared several posts before about her service member being away. Most adversaries are tracking small snippets of information and piecing them together. Best practice is not to share events before they occur (as often as you can avoid it) and stick with posting after they happen. I hope that helps!
Katie, posting about promotions is not an OPSEC violation. It was simply an example of something that someone might post while sharing their service member’s exact job. Sharing rank is okay. Sharing the exact job associated with the rank gets into a grey area where an adversary could start putting pieces of information more easily together. Especially if that social media share includes a photo, which it often does. I hope that helps!
Thank you. I really appreciate this. Safety is definitely first. I was wondering about the media. It seems like they share too much. It’s great to hear what’s going on, but concerns me. This is my son’s first deployment, so really didn’t know what to expect. Thanks for some education
Thankyou, my family member just joined the military, my daughter sent this to me , Iam glad I would want to put anyone in arms way , we are excited , it’s great to know how he and family are protected , should we take our profile pictures down if they are in photo? I love the way you brought this message to us!!