Homework Responses Wk 8 & 4

Operational Security (OPSEC) is the process of denying the enemy information pertinent to the organization or security detail’s planning processes and operations (APUS, 2020). In short, making the collection of open-source information more difficult to obtain through analytical thinking and concerted effort to reduce leakage. “The goal then is to take a hard and thorough look to determine the unit’s vulnerabilities” and determine what information would be valuable to the enemy and take appropriate measures to safeguard it (McGovern, 2011). These measures should be more systematic and less specific. Information such as travel patterns, schedules, available assets, security vulnerabilities, etc. will always be of value to adversaries, so policies like not discussing operations in public spaces or shredding old itineraries and operation orders should be in place to make the collection of this information more difficult.

 

In general, I believe security details are most likely to fail to safeguard sensitive information through routine communications with outside partners. For example, in 1984 the US Department of State created the Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) (Heard, 2014). At high-threat posts around the world, US Embassy Regional Security Officers invite local security companies, partner forces, and other concerned parties operating in the area (both private and public) to join chat groups and attend regular meetings to share regional security information and disseminate alerts and incident notifications. It has been my experience that these groups tend to share more information to the State Department than they are given, precisely due to concerns over operational security. The issue with groups like these is that open-source information sharing forums work very well at passing information quickly and are very poor at restricting who has access to that information. To use an example from the lesson, coordinating with other security details during advance operations is critical to deconfliction at drop zones, staging vehicles for departure, and avoiding fratricide during attacks on principle. However, my team may be tight lipped about specific capabilities of our detail but the instant I share this information with another detail, say from the other embassies, this information should now be considered public knowledge as they will be assuredly less concerned with safeguarding this information as you are. It is definitely a balancing act and one that evolves and grows with relationships.

 

References

APUS. (2020). W4: Operations. SCMT396. Retrieved from https://myclassroom.apus.edu/d2l/home/27059

Heard, B. J. (2014). Kidnapping and abduction:  Minimizing the threat and lessons in survival. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. 

McGovern, G. P. (2011).  Protective operations:  A handbook for law enforcement and security.  Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.