Internet can have hidden dangers

  • Published
  • By Maj. Bryan Henderson
  • 60th Air Mobility Wing XP
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  Operational Security, more commonly known today as OPSEC, is not a new concept.

Though our current Air Force Instruction 10-701 directing the OPSEC program was released in 2007, OPSEC is as old as the original Trojan Horse.

For the most part, it is common sense ... keep your adversary in the dark with respect to your operations.

As any boxer might say, "don't telegraph your punches, you'll get knocked on you're a**if you do."
 
I'm not a boxing aficionado, but the principle is sound and holds true in any confrontation or competition.

Could you imagine if it was learned that every time a certain football team put a player in motion before the snap, that the quarterback would pass to the left wide receiver 10 yards past the line of scrimmage?

Or what about a certain baseball team that would always run a squeeze play anytime a player was on 3rd base?

For all you poker players, wouldn't it be nice to know every time your opponent was bluffing, they would scratch their left ear?

Hopefully by now you get the picture. It's the little things that add up.
 
For instance, Time Magazine's 'And Bomb the Anchovies' (Time, p. 13, 8/13/90) outlines how Domino's delivery drivers at various Domino's pizza outlets in and around Washington D.C. claim they have learned to anticipate big news baking at the White House or Pentagon by the upsurge in takeout orders.
 
Pentagon orders doubled the night before the Panama attack; the same thing happened before the Grenada invasion. Midnight pizza orders tipped off Iraq's surprise invasion of Kuwait.

If a pizza driver can put this type of 'intelligence' together by observing our operations, how much more do you think a team of Ph.ds with state funding and small network of observers could put together?

As technology evolves, it makes our lives easier; to communicate, share information, get business done, be more efficient and be faster doing it.

To help provide you with goods and services, some smartphone's default setting is to report your location and summon coupons and ads as you walk by certain merchants. Other features copy your location and time to any photos you take with your smartphones.

When these photos are uploaded to social networking sites such as Facebook, the whole world now knows where and when the photo was taken. Did you know the default settings of some social networking sites are to display the geographical location by using the internet protocol address of the computer you used?

Want proof? Just do an internet search on Mythbuster's Adam Savage and geotagging. It catalogs how he snapped a photo with his iphone and sent a 'tweet' out. Another article outlines how one person was able to reconstruct the daily activities of a couple he saw snapping a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge with a simple search on Four Square.

How about group photos down range ... you know the 'hero' shots that boost morale and often showup at the Christmas party. Are those photos geotagged? Are they on a website? Even an official web site? If they are, you may have disclosed some critical mission information, or highlighted a bar or recreational setting in which service members congregate. Would that make a good bombing target?

It is almost common knowledge that cell phones can be listened to, just web search 'How to Eavesdrop on a Cell Phone.' If a novice can hack your phone, imagine what a pro with unlimited funds could do.

In our country, we have laws prohibiting such actions, but our adversaries don't have such restrictions. With a relatively porous border, there are no guarantees that operatives are not reading this very article. The best course of action is to assume they are. With that assumption, pay attention to what you say and where you say it. Air Force members should know what information is critical and what isn't.

For more information, contact your unit OPSEC coordinator and find out what is on your Critical Information List.