HOOAH!!!! Radio

OPSEC – OPerational SECurity is very important to understand when dealing with the government. OPSEC helps to protect classified and unclassified information that our government has.  It is very important for everyone to understand.  There are many key points of OPSEC that will be pointed out below in this briefing.

For us it is important to keep the information of the military person we know safe.  In the wrong hands, the unclassified information YOU possess could cause potentially grave harm to the United States or your military service member.

What is the Threat?

The threat is harm to the United States or your military service member.  If there were no threats, there would be no reason to protect anything.  These threats are what your men and woman are fighting against.

What are you protecting?

Any and all unclassified/classified information.  Hopefully if you do not possess a security clearance, you do not know any classified information.  But all information needs to remain safe.

Examples of this include:

Last names.

All Dates (Returning/Leaving/R&R, etc.)

Exact Unit numbers or Unit Names.

Exact locations (Bases, Posts, Forts, FOBs, Convoys, Ports)

Addresses, email, phone numbers.

All information Trusted to You should remain in your brain, Do Not SHARE this information.  If it’s questionable as to whether or not you should say the information, ask a Station Manager/Station Owner or keep it to yourself.

Need To Know

Need to know is an important concept to understand.  Stop, think and decide whether or not another person needs to know this information. Does Person – need to know Private John’s last name?  In most cases NO!   Addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, dates, unit numbers, locations or bases/ports etc., and all other “sensitive” information are all examples of things “strangers” do not need to know.

Even between two people who hold a Top Secret security clearance.  One person may not tell the other a classified number if that person does not have a need to know.

Before you give away any information to another person, decide if they have the need to know. This is a very important concept.

Basic OPSEC Countermeasures

Properly destroy sensitive information.

Avoid posting or displaying sensitive information.

Do not leave laptop computers unattended in public places.

Be aware of the threats.

Know how information is gathered.

Know what information requires protection.

Know what you can do to protect the information.

What is Sensitive Information?

Sensitive information can be anything.  Usually sensitive information is any place of unclassified (or classified) information that can help the enemy put the missing pieces of the puzzle together. Sensitive information can be anything from a last name to a bank account number.  Be practicing need to know, you should be effective in minimizing the amount of sensitive information you give out. The most important concepts is to stay aware of the information you know, and be sure that you keep it safe.

The Intelligence Puzzle

When the enemy collects enough sensitive UNCLASSIFIED information they may be able to find out what the big picture is.  With enough unclassified information, it is significantly easier to piece together what the CLASSIFIED information would be.  This is a huge security risk.

OPSEC is so much more than this, but this is a general idea of it. Please check out the links below for more information.  OPSEC is a great tool that we all use, but should be more aware of, especially when our country could be at stake.

HOOAH!!!! Radio OPSEC Rules

Please understand HOOAH!!!! Radio takes OPSEC very SERIOUS and we will do everything in our power to uphold service members and military organization sensitive information safe.

Please practice OPSEC in your posts on the website, please do not include sensitive information listed above in your post if you do your posts will Not be approved from distribution within the website.  This includes, pictures, unit numbers or organizations deployed, service members first or last name, deployment dates.

Requests – We will not be able to use a service member’s first or last name at the same time on the air due to OPSEC guidelines. When making a request a good example to follow would be this:

Example: I like to send a song to my SGT Smith, friend, brother, sister, family member, etc., that just got back from Iraq and he/she is in the (service branch).

HOOAH!!!! Radio Shoutouts – HOOAH!!!! Radio management will make sure all recorded shoutouts to service members meet all OPSEC guidelines prior to being aired on HOOAH!!!! Radio.

HOOAH!!!! Radio Staff – All HOOAH!!!! Radio staff members will comply with all OPSEC guidelines, and if found to be in violation on the air, maybe released from HOOAH!!!! Radio permanently.

Thanks,

HOOAH!!!! Radio Station Management