4 October 2010 by Revelator.

January 22nd - that’s the day folks.

As the anniversary of the day President Reagan (Saint Ron) signed National Security Decision Directive Number 298 into being I can’t wait to celebrate National OPSEC Day…is what I would be saying if, in fact, there were such an anniversary. Well ok, for arguments sake I guess any day that something happened would be followed annually by an anniversary but I’m not talking about just any day. No sir and no ma’am. I’m talking about a commemorative anniversary. One that celebrates all that is encompassed by the signing of this important document.

Those of you who have read one or two of my missives in this blog may be wondering just what type of tomfoolery I’m up to now but let me assure you that I am rather serious about this.

And so I ask you; why not a National OPSEC Day?

Aside from our formal holidays most “National Days” are there to commemorate but also - and perhaps more significantly - to raise awareness about a specific subject. Here are but a few examples: Family Literacy Day - America Recycles Day - World Aids Day - Human Rights Day.
And that’s a very, very, very small sample of “National Days”.

Also understand that many things are so important they merit a whole month: National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month - National Autism Awareness Month - National Child Abuse Prevention Month - Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month. All very good months to be sure and again, a very, very small sampling.

On the other end of the scale we have literally hundreds of other “National Days” that are just plain ridiculous: Run It Up the Flagpole and See if Anybody Salutes It Day - Old Rock Day - National Step in a Puddle and Splash Your Friend Day - Blame Someone Else Day - National Answer Your Cat’s Question Day. And those are all contained in January - and that ain’t all of them.

With this in mind how hard could it be to create a National OPSEC Day? Actually, quite hard indeed. A truly “National” day is literally an act of Congress and takes a lot of work. The first step is to contact your local congress person. Once you have their attention, you have to create the proposal and hopefully get it on the congressional agenda before too many years have passed. If you are intent on doing it and have the patience, it can be done. I’m afraid I don’t have the time or resources to mount such an effort.

We, as a group though, just might. And quit waiting for a punch line - there isn’t one coming.

I do OPSEC for a living. I think it’s important enough to dedicate my golden years doing OPSEC and hopefully (on some level) making OPSEC something better today than it was yesterday. And I know for a fact that there are hundreds (thousands?) of you out there doing the same as I am. I would name names of those I think are really contributing to the OPSEC profession but that would appear that I am calling them out as opposed to proving to you that I’m not the only one out here that respects OPSEC and works hard at it.

So what is next? I have no idea. I didn’t write this as someone trying to rally the troops around me and this idea. No - I just wanted to plant the seed and tell you that I think a National OPSEC Day would actually be a good idea.

The question now is - who will step up and try to make OPSEC a little better today than it was yesterday?

Keep the Faith
Revelator

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25 May 2010 by Revelator.

MEMORIAL DAY
by c.w. johnson

We walked among the crosses
Where our fallen soldiers lay.
And listened to the bugle
As TAPS began to play.
The Chaplin led a prayer
We stood with heads bowed low.
And I thought of fallen comrades
I had known so long ago.
They came from every city
Across this fertile land.
That we might live in freedom.
They lie here ‘neath the sand.
I felt a little guilty
My sacrifice was small.
I only lost a little time
But these men lost their all.
Now the services are over
For this Memorial Day.
To the names upon these crosses
I just want to say,
Thanks for what you’ve given
No one could ask for more.
May you rest with God in heaven
From now through evermore.

On Memorial Day I urge you to reach out and personally thank a veteran or a surviving family member for their sacrifice. A handshake will do - as will a simple “thank you”.

“A veteran - whether active duty, retired, or national guard or reserve - is someone who, at one point in his/her life, wrote a blank check made payable to “The United States of America,” for an amount of “up to and including my life.”

God Bless America
Keep the Faith
Revelator - AKA: Layne Marino, MSgt, USAF (Ret)

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18 December 2009 by Revelator.

Today I want to share an interview I conducted with an OPSEC grey beard (GB) who insisted he remain nameless. Originally, I refused to do the interview with this particular stipulation but as you read on I think you’ll agree that even without identification the information shared is valuable enough to overlook the anonymity clause. We sat down in a small bar in a busy city near our nations capital. After ordering, I hit record and began the interview.

Rev: How long have you been in OPSEC?
GB: Since before they called it OPSEC.

Rev: What did they call it before they coined the term OPSEC?
GB: They didn’t call it anything - that’s the point isn’t it? It didn’t have a name. But we knew it as using your common sense - doing the right thing - being smart - protecting your ass from the guy trying to shoot it off.

Rev: Do you see OPSEC as primarily a wartime program?
GB: First, I don’t see it as a program - I see it as a way of life. But to answer your question up until very recently yes, it’s application was mainly in support of military operations - specifically wartime operations. But in the past ten years I think we have come to realize that every day is a wartime situation. Every conversation, every text, every tweet, every email could harm not only our all-volunteer military but also innocent civilians.

Rev: So would you say that in these times spreading the gospel is critical.
GB: Spreading the gospel, as you say, has always been critical. OPSEC can truly be a life saving art but if no one understands it and therefore no one uses it then its no more useful than the warnings on a pack of cigarettes. The most important step in the OPSEC process, as we know it now, isn’t even one of the five steps because it is a concept followed - if we’re lucky - by an action.

Rev: And what is that?
GB: Awareness! The most important OPSEC concept is awareness. If the people in your military unit or even your corporation don’t understand the “why” of OPSEC then you guys can take the OPSEC process and work it into the ground and it won’t be worth a damn because no one understands why you are doing it. And more importantly why they should use it. Listen; I’ve known guys who knew OPSEC cold…knew how to work each of the five steps, and could write an OPSEC plan so beautiful you would marvel at its magnificence. But some of these guys couldn’t sell the concept - they couldn’t show people how or why they should care about, much less use, OPSEC in their daily operations.

Rev: Is it true that the OPSEC process was at one time 12 steps and then 9 steps before we arrived at the five steps we have now?
GB: Absolutely. And it was 15 steps and 10 steps and one pretty highly placed, but ignorant, guy wanted it to be three steps.

Rev: Well, how many steps do you think it should be?
GB: To be honest, I wasn’t happy with the five steps when it first came out. I thought they left out two steps that I thought we’re pretty important.

Rev: Which were…?
GB: Not important now. People seem to be doing them just as a matter of course so I don’t want to upset those that are responsible for this process. But let me make another point before we move on; the average person in your organization doesn’t care how many steps it is. They don’t care about what you have to do to accomplish the five steps of the OPSEC process. You know what they care about if they care at all?

Rev: Tell me, please.
GB: Two things - what do I need to protect and how do I protect it. And that is all they should care about. The OPSEC Manager needs to do all the work and be able to answer those questions for the warfighter. If you can’t tell them what needs to be protected and how to protect it then what are you there for? To give the annual training? To fill the square? Bullshit. You are there to protect the mission and to protect life so if you can’t tell the trigger pullers what to protect and how to protect it then crawl back into your cubicle and work on your next PowerPoint presentation cuz brother they don’t need you.

Rev: Strong words sir.
GB: Yes they are. Look, I’ve worked at this too long and too hard to try to soften the blow of what I’ve learned over the years. You asked me so I’m telling you. I believe I’ve saved lives using OPSEC and if I couldn’t say that then why would I have stayed in OPSEC? For the glamour? For the glory? For the money? No, no and hell no! (long pause) In my military service I took lives… Since I laid down my weapon I have been trying to save lives and as I said I believe I have. (pause) OPSEC is important. It’s more than going to the conference once a year. It’s more than giving your annual briefing. It’s more than putting up a poster or two. Actually, it is all of that but so much more.

This is the end of part one of the interview. I’ll have part two for you soon.

Keep the Faith!
Revelator

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16 October 2009 by Revelator.

As we are all aware by now Operations Security, or OPSEC, has been around for ages. We first see it referred to directly in early Greek texts like this “ασφάλεια διαδικασιών.” Granted most of us don’t read Greek but perhaps this will aid in your understanding: OPSEC has it’s own Greek God - his name is Opus.

Opus was the brother of Calisto. After the overthrow of their Father Vasilios he drew lots with Calisto and four other brothers, for shares of the security world. Opus had the worst draw and was made lord of OPSEC. His wife was Iossa whom Opus abducted from the God Enesay. Opus may be the God of OPSEC but, security itself is another god, Seeiya.

This legend was first spoke of in Greek Mythology as dictated by Ospa; a Greek pre-classical poet and contemporary of Homer. His preliminary epic poems spoke through symbolism with a heavy dose of romanticism though some of his later works dealt directly with mysticism and the duality of God and man. In an early Ospa epic Opus was shown as both God and man as he does battle with the mythical 5-headed purple dragon, Tarasthretenstien. Opus, though expressly told not to seek out and attack Tarasthretenstein, set out one day with the express purpose of doing battle with, and ultimately defeating the dreaded purple dragon. It is written that he ignored the warnings of his father Vasilios as he suited up for battle knowing that as the God of OPSEC his failure would mean the loss of OPSEC to the world. As soon as he was suited up, the sky turned black and the purple dragon descended with each of its five mouths spewing fire.

As Tarasthretenstien drew closer Opus bent on his knees in a gesture of surrender. Tarasthretenstien thought Opus was begging for his life, so she did not attack immediately. Seeing his deception working Opus struck the dragon with his magic Sword of OPSEC cleanly severing one of her five heads.

Fearing defeat Tarasthretenstein begged for her life explaining that she had hatchlings all over the world that would die if she did not feed them. Opus, realizing that leaving Tarasthretenstien alive would result in unacceptable risk cut off her four remaining heads.

As we all know today, Tarasthretenstien’s hatchlings survived leaving us with a world of threats and adversaries to this day.

When times get tough, remember the OPSEC God Opus and attack those threats in any way you can.

Keep the Faith!
Revelator

Puff The Magic Dragon by Peter, Paul and Mary

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26 August 2008 by Revelator.

An exerpt from SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN magazine, May 1908 (that’s right 1908 - 100 years ago…)

“Soon after the first reports were received regarding the flights being made by the Wright brothers in testing their aeroplane, a considerable number of newspaper correspondents visited the scene of the trials among the high and pointed sand dunes of the North Carolina coast south of Norfolk, Virginia. The brothers refused to make any flights, however, when the reporters were near at hand, and so the gentlemen of the press were obliged to keep in hiding nearly a mile away from the scene of operations, and to merely watch the machine from afar through spyglasses when it was flying.”

The term OPSEC may have been coined by the original Purple Dragon crew but many examples of OPSEC in action resound throughout history - this is but one more.

Keep the Faith!
Revelator

Enter Sandman - Metallica

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17 March 2008 by Revelator.

So, I’m at my local Chinese joint and after a very nice meal I eagerly await the delivery of my Fortune Cookie.  What wonder of the future will it foretell or perhaps what evil must I avoid this week?  When it arrives it is my custom to eat the whole cookie before reading the fortune thus ensuring that I have “earned” the fortune given me.  I don’t trust people who tear open the wrapper, bust the cookie in half, tear out the fortune and then toss the cookie aside.  It shows a lack of respect for a 99 year old tradition with it’s roots in the mystical environs of either L.A or San Francisco.  Either way - it’s just rude, man.  So after I eat the cookie I slowly unbend the small paper in anticipation of the prophesy that fate has put into my hands.  Here is what it said:  “Society prepares the crime; the criminal commits it.” 

What the?!  THAT’S my fortune?  Is that even a fortune?  I mean, they are called “fortune” cookies right?  What the hell?  It’s not even uplifting.  At this point I am teetering on outrage and in danger of embarrassing my long-suffering wife.  Instead of taking it out on the staff my oh-so-patient wife convinces me to take a long pull on the Plum Wine and check myself.  So I did.  I mean, it’s not the restaurants fault so why take it out on them? 

 Some time passes and out of curiosity I ask my wife what her fortune read.  She adeptly dodged the subject which made me even more curious and after some time I convinced her to show me her “fortune.”  Here is what it said:  “You love challenge.”  Well what the hell kind of fortune is that I ask you?  Fortune?  That’s not a fortune!  And by the way - my wife doesn’t love challenge.  Sure she likes a good challenge every once in a while but generally she is challenge averse.  She would much rather go through life without any challenges of any kind and I love her for it.  So, it’s not a fortune but it is also not true!  Now I’m just pissed so I ask for some more Fortune Cookies to simply check to see if we just got some bum cookies and that the world had not actually turned on its ear. 

Here is what I saw:  “The laws sometimes sleep, but never die.”  “Do something unusual tomorrow.”  “The young have youth and beauty, wisdom is for the old.”   

OK; I give up.  Sleeping laws; an order to disturb an otherwise serene day; and then my wife, who has and cherishes her ageless beauty, is told that she isn’t beautiful any more - but it’s OK cuz she’s wise.  Trust me when I tell you this - given the option she will choose beautiful over old and sage every time.  I’ve decided to give up on the whole fortune cookie concept.  I’ll honor Chu Yuan Chang in my own way without the frustration of the now horribly misleading “fortune” cookie.

By the way, according to 14th century legend is said that when the Mongols ruled China, a revolutionary named Chu Yuan Chang planned an uprising against them. He used mooncakes to pass along the date of the uprising to the Chinese by replacing the yolk in the center of the mooncake with the message written on rice paper. The Mongols did not care for the yolks, so the plan went on successfully and the Ming Dynasty began.  It is claimed that the Moon Festival celebrates this with the tradition of giving mooncakes with messages inside. Immigrant Chinese railroad workers, without the ingredients to make regular mooncakes, made biscuits instead. It is these biscuits that may have later inspired fortune cookies.
Today’s OPSEC lesson: Protect the plan - create a dynasty.

Your OPSEC fortune: You will meet a tall, dark and handsome man who will use information against you.

Keep the Faith!

Revelator

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