FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. — January is National Operations Security Awareness Month and this year’s theme is “Protect What’s Yours.”
Throughout the month, the Fort Leonard Wood OPSEC office will provide tips and reminders to help us all start the year off with an OPSEC mindset in everything we do.
OPSEC is a systematic process to identify, control and protect critical information about a mission, operation or activity. The purpose is to deny or mitigate an adversary’s ability to compromise that information.
Maintaining vigilance with mission-critical and sensitive information is key to combatting terrorism, extremism, insider threats and cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
Every day, we make decisions about handling information. It is important to be aware of our actions, protect sensitive information from start to finish, use secure communications to the maximum extent possible, practice careful cyber hygiene, and cease “shop talk” in environments where individuals without the need to know might overhear.
OPSEC countermeasures reduce the probability of an adversary observing indicators, exploiting vulnerabilities, analyzing the collected information and taking detrimental action against critical missions and operations.
Practice the following OPSEC countermeasures:
- Schedule OPSEC training annually and as mission requirements change.
- Identify the information you need to protect about yourself and your unit; and have a plan in place for how to protect that information — this includes shredding documents when they are no longer needed, protecting passwords and sharing information only with those who need to know.
- Talk with family members about OPSEC to make sure they understand what information needs to be protected and how.
- Finally, know who your OPSEC officer is and contact them to request an OPSEC review of your materials, schedule training, report a potential compromise, or if you are just not sure about something.
We are involved in an information war. Adversaries monitoring our activities, conversations and communications use various tactics to gain information that can be used against us. We are only as strong as our weakest link. Everyone is responsible for practicing OPSEC all the time.
For more information, contact the Fort Leonard Wood OPSEC Office at 573.563.2402.
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