“WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY, AND IT IS US!” The Need for Common Sense, Not Only Technical Competence
by Richard F. Forno
The title of this essay should read “Good Grief, Charlie Brown...we’ve done it again!” but that may be a bit over-the top. The goal of this missive is to demonstrate the sad fact that that our armed forces employ and tolerate people in positions of sensitive technical responsibility that may be technically competent and hold some industry certifications (a Good Thing) but are either walking through life and their professions with blinders on or fell asleep during their unit’s last OPSEC briefing (if they even had an OPSEC briefing... a Bad Thing if they didn’t.) Operations Security (OPSEC) is broadly-defined as a process to: examine day-to-day activities from an adversary’s point of view; to understand what an adversary can learn about an organization from these activities (observables); to assess the amount of risk this places on the organization; and help in developing and enacting countermeasures so the bad guys don’t win. In short, OPSEC is the process where one keeps routine indicators of one’s capabilities, actions, and plans masked and away from prying eyes. Ask any security professional, and they will tell you that OPSEC comes down to the application of common-sense precautions in daily operations regardless if you are military, or commercial organizations, it comes down to common-sense and the ability to THINK.
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