Using OPSEC in the exercise environment

  • Published
  • By Compiled from staff reports
  • 354th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
As the Eielson AFB gears up for the summer exercise season, personnel are reminded that it is essential to apply solid and smart Operations Security. Though OPSEC is always vital to mission success, practicing it is especially important during up-tempo operations, such as Red Flag-Alaska and base emergency management exercises, to ensure appropriate levels of security are consistently maintained.

According to the Eielson's OPSEC program managers, everyone has a role in applying OPSEC and ensuring the security of the installation as a whole.

Captain Hylton, 354th Fighter Wing OPSEC program manager, said it's easy to get complacent and think that personnel are not at risk here in Alaska, but cautions that adversaries still seek to actively collect and exploit available information here.

"Asymmetric warfare requires us to think and act while keeping the adversary's mindset in perspective," he said. "We must react to protect anything that could be exploited."

He explained that everyone needs to be informed about the ways adversaries try to gain access to information and what steps we can take to cut them off from that critical information.

First, all members should be familiar with the wing and unit critical information lists, the lists designed to capture information deemed most important to protect.

"The threat to the United States is real," said Robert Cologie, 354th FW OPSEC program manager. "Adversaries, old and new, are gathering information and synthesizing it into intelligence at a break-neck pace. Protection of information and information systems are vital to our national strategy and thwart ill intentions."

By understanding how an adversary might try to gain access to our information, Captain Hylton said we can protect ourselves from putting our information at risk. Some of the common methods used to gain access to our information are surveillance - either electronically or in person - which he described as someone listening in on conversations, tapping into phone lines or intercepting e-mails.

Other forms of exploitation include: elicitation - individuals actively trying to gain information by asking questions, offering favors, money, gifts, etc.; imagery - individuals taking photos of key facilities, flightline, power plant, gates, aircraft, fuel storage, personnel, etc.; and dumpster diving - individuals gathering documents from trash or shred bins or unattended work areas.

"When everyone is aware of methods used against us, we can more efficiently apply countermeasures to protect our critical information," Captain Hylton said. "These countermeasures can effectively cut off our adversary's ability to collect against us."

Some countermeasures to bolster OPSEC integrity include: 

Knowing your surroundings 

o Ensure all people listening have a "need to know" of any information you could be talking about. 

o Don't talk shop while off duty - you could be giving out information to people that don't have a "need to know." 

Use secure communication 

o Don't discuss critical information over unsecured phones or e-mail or in unsecured environments. 

o Don't try to talk around classified or critical information. 

o It's better to go talk to someone in person than to risk a disclosure of information.
Detecting and reporting the unusual 

o Ensure all people in your work area belong - if someone is present that shouldn't be there, verify their credentials and make sure they are either escorted out of your work area or taken to the area they are trying to find. 

o If someone you don't know is asking you questions concerning your job, the materials you work with or other information that makes you feel uncertain, do not answer! Seek guidance and report it! 

o The Air Force Office of Special Investigations has created the Eagle Eyes program to facilitate the gathering of key indicators at a central point. A series of unusual events can be connected to create a picture of a potential plan to strike against us. The 24-hour contact number for Eagle Eyes is 377-5130.

For more information about OPSEC, call Capt. Matt Hylton at 377-2615, Mr. Robert Cologie at 377-3306 or your unit OPSEC monitors