If you want a provocative headline, try this one: “Social networking puts operational security, Soldiers lives at risk.”
Eve Meinhardt, writing in the Fort Bragg Paraglide, seems to go against everything we’re preaching in Army public affairs today, especially given the social media emphasis in the 2009 Worldwide Public Affairs Symposium in April and the Association of the United States Army conference last week.
The headline seems to caution against any participation. The tone continues through most of the article.
But the author never flashes the “DO NOT ENTER” light. Instead, she offers a stern warning, to the entire military community, “Don’t be stupid”:
Kellie Neuschwanger, Security and Intelligence Division, Directorate of Emergency Services, said that the safety of Soldiers, the Families and everyone working on Fort Bragg should be at the forefront of everyones mind when they write a “tweet” or update their social networking pages. “Each one of us – Soldier, Family member, civilian or contractor – has knowledge that is valuable to the enemy. Even providing mundane details like what time a PT physical training formation is taking place or where construction is on Fort Bragg can compromise OPSEC operational security,” said Neuschwanger.”It is important for all to understand that just because they can access these social networking sites, both at work and at home, does not give you permission to discuss operational and organizational information on them.”
We can’t prevent Soldiers, civilians and family members from using social media, and we can’t prevent every mistake. In fact, overall, the Army benefits from increased, authentic participation in the vast conversation of the Web.
But we can never forget the bad guys, and I don’t think, as public affairs pros, we can leave the OPSEC training to once-a-year encounter sessions with the information security officers. We’ve been trying to uncork the bottle for years. We need to share some responsibility in teaching our people how to tame the genie.
So this kind of article should stand next to the articles encouraging commanders to let their subordinates blog and tweet. The tone might be off-putting, but some readers who might ignore our more gentle reminders could be “scared straight” by this approach – if they aren’t scared completely out of the blogosphere.
Read Social networking puts operational security, Soldiers lives at risk.