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Whether you realize it or not, the work your spouse or family member does in the military is extremely important. In fact, it’s so important that foreign governments, bad actors, and many others may have an interest in the information and resources at their disposal.
On one hand, this is great. It helps to solidify the point that what your family does matters. Putting on the uniform everyday means something. Supporting someone who puts on the uniform means something.
On the other hand, though, it also comes with great responsibility. Not only do you have to take the steps necessary to protect yourself and your family, but you also have to be on guard for people trying to gain access to things that they shouldn’t have access to.
While the military does conduct annual cyber security training, there are some areas where we as a community can do more. Most notably, this training is generally reserved for the service member only.
We believe that it’s imperative that families also get training about how to stay safe digitally due to their proximity to the service member.
Today, that’s what we’re going to look at. We want to share 10 things that you as a close family member or spouse need to know about digital security or OPSEC (operations security).
We HIGHLY encourage you to share this with any other milspouses or mil family members you know. Post it anywhere they frequent so it can get into the right hands.
1. Seemingly unimportant information can be important to foreign bad actors.
Just because it doesn’t seem important to you doesn’t mean it isn’t meaningful to someone else. For example, telling someone or posting how many people you cooked for in your spouse’s unit might seem harmless, but this now tells someone roughly the size/strength of that unit. Sharing that your husband or wife is getting home late because “the trucks broke down again” might seem harmless but it signals the current condition of their equipment.
Small details shared over time can be pieced together into a big picture.
The best way to approach this is look at the risk vs reward of what you post and the details. Saying that you cooked for the unit is probably still meaningful even if you don’t put how many people you cooked for. Being upset that your spouse will be home late again because of faulty equipment is fine, but does that really need to get posted or shared with other people?
Bad actors can take a tiny piece of information from you, from another spouse, from another post, etc. and put it all together to pain a much bigger picture.
2. “I didn’t say anything classified” is not the same as “I didn’t reveal risk”
Information doesn’t have to be classified for it to be useful to our adversaries. Remember, small details from a lot of different sources can paint a big picture pretty quickly.
Why does this matter? The more information our enemies have on our soldiers, the bigger advantage it gives them. Even if we aren’t involved in any active conflicts, this information can jeopardize the safety of the ones we love.
Before you post anything, ask yourself if it could even in the slightest be used to give intel to our adversaries. If the answer is even 1% yes, you shouldn’t post it.
[QUOTE] We would all hopefully agree that the safety of our soldiers is far more important than internet likes.
3. Deployment dates, training rotation dates, and unit-specific details should be kept private.
One of the most sought after pieces of data by our adversaries is troop movements. By knowing where different units are and when, it gives them invaluable intel that could be used against us.
Deployment dates, training rotation dates, drill dates (National Guard and Reserve), travel dates, etc. should all be kept private. If the unit puts it out into the media publicly, then you can consider it safe to share. But if they haven’t done that (and we mean the actual media, not internally with the unit or in the unit newsletter), keep it quiet.
4. Be careful of reflections, whiteboards, calendars, and paperwork in the background of any photos you post.
Most milspouses are great at being organized. You probably have all the training dates and important information on a nice calendar somewhere in your house. This is all great.
However, you have to be careful of a few things. Number one, if you take pictures in your house, make sure none of this is in the background of one of those photos. Number two, if you invite people over to your house, you probably don’t want this somewhere that it can easily be seen or end up in the back of a picture randomly.
Be proud of practicing good OPSEC.
5. Be careful of celebration photos taken on base or near restricted areas
There is a reason that military bases and installations aren’t open to the general public. It’s because these installations are designed to keep our soldiers safe, and they also tend to have things going on that we don’t want the general public to see.
When your soldier does something great, we encourage you to take pictures to commemorate and celebrate. In fact, we encourage you to share these pictures with others!
However, make sure that you look at what is going on in the background of your picture before you take it. If you don’t know what it is or it’s something that shouldn’t be made public, change the angle of your picture or move somewhere else to take it.
Remember, small things matter here. For example, a picture with a gate and gate guards in the background could give information on how to breach the base. Or a picture with certain military equipment in the background that is not set out specifically for photos could have things visible not meant to be shared.
6. Your kids and teens need to understand the risks.
If you have kids, it’s important that they understand these risks too. Let them know that keeping it secret helps to keep dad or mom safe. If they are older, you can share more details instead of just saying, “Don’t post this.”
When they understand the why, the more likely they are to comply.
This should also be accompanied by a larger chat about online safety covering things like how people may not be who they say they are and why people may target military families.
A few other helpful tips:
- Help them come up with safe answers around deployments or other popular questions.
- Encourage them to ask you before posting something about the military or schedules.
- Let them know that gaming chats and Discord servers should be treated with the same safety considerations as traditional social media.
- Let them know to alert you if someone is asking a lot of questions or seems overly interested.
7. Engaging in bad or illegal behavior can make you a target for blackmail.
We’re not here to assume anyone is doing anything wrong (seriously). However, the reality is that it does happen. For that reason, we do find it important to share this (so please don’t take it personally if it doesn’t apply to you).
If you do something illegal or get involved romantically with someone who is not your spouse, this could be used to blackmail you in the future. Yes, it sounds like it’s straight out of some crime thriller movie, but it’s real, and it happens.
We won’t get on the soapbox anymore about this, but if you do anything that you wouldn’t want other people to know about, you’re at risk of blackmail from foreign actors who might even try to set you up.
8. Be prepared to contact the right person when something feels off or you’ve made a mistake.
What do you do if something happens, you think someone is trying to get information, or you feel like something is off? Start by talking to your service member. Tell them everything that happened. Share screenshots and evidence as well if you have it.
Your service member should know who in their unit they should take this to. If they don’t, have them take it to their next line leader or open door the commander.
This is that important. Just because you don’t think it’s anything major, doesn’t mean it isn’t. Let the experts make that call.
Have a plan in place in case anything happens. People will not be there to judge you if it’s because of something you did. They’ll be happy that you did the right thing to bring it to their attention to keep everyone safe.
9. Verify who you’re talking to before sharing information.
Impersonation scams are far too popular across all industries, not just in the military. However, as a milspouse or military family member, you have to especially be on guard for this.
If someone calls claiming to be from your soldier’s unit asking for information, verify who they are first through another source before sharing anything. Let your soldier know before you say anything.
Remember, just because they sound official, tell you the right name, and know something about your soldier doesn’t mean they are legit.
This is where those small pieces of information from earlier can be leveraged to get bigger bits of information by gaining your trust through “knowing things a random person wouldn’t just know.”
10. Assume everything you post online is public and permanent.
Lastly, you have to assume that anything and everything you post online is public and permanent. Even if you set it only to share to a close group of friends, you can never trust that is actually the case.
Once it’s out there even for a few minutes, it’s out there.
This is why learning about OPSEC and good security practices before posting is so important.
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Healthy Framework Team
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