30. January 2009 by Layne.

The Purple Coats are coming! The Purple coats are coming!

That’s right kids - in just over one week the National OPSEC Conference will land in the Alamo City, San Antonio, Texas. And thanks to the Spurs getting booted out of the Playoffs (not to mention the Swine Flu based State of Emergency in Texas) we’ll have the Riverwalk all to ourselves for the week.

But not just the Riverwalk - San Antonio is chock full of places and activities to keep you entertained and occupied during your visit: The Alamo, La Villita, Gilberts Mexican Restaurant,
Hard Rock Cafe, Six Flags Fiesta Texas, Sea World, Witte Museum, San Antonio Museum of Art, El Mercado, Durty Nellie’s Irish Pub, Schlitterbahn Water Park Resort, Howl at the Moon,
Tower of the Americas, Splashtown, Dick’s Last Resort, Kirk’s Back Yard BBQ, Mission San Jose,
Coyote Ugly, Mad Dogs and on and on…

And if you get bored with all that stuff then I reckon you can stop by the conference for a presentation or two. It’s too late a date to try to convince you to register for the conference but I can tell you that over 1,000 OPSECers have registered! It’s the biggest ever. As they say, “Everything is bigger in Texas.”

Hopefully I’ll see you there. Also, I’m quite looking forward to seeing Don Sidro, J-Ellen, A-Train, Chik, BoyToy, Auggie Doggie, Ginzo, Betty Lee, Daniel-san, Tina Di, Goodie, Lovely Linda, Aussie OPSEC, Oso, Jacko, Red, Jernandler Bong, Jimmy Mags, Joannie C., Joey H., Keef, Kirk, Knappster, Numlock, Kyle, Wisdom, Goose, The Round Mound of OPSEC, Ollie, Saddam Dancing Phil, Sarge, Petro, Tomas A., and of course, BIG SEXY.

Can’t wait!
The first one’s on me (and for me).

Keep the Faith!
Revelator

Dirty Water - The Standells

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29. January 2009 by Layne.

I don’t get out much. I suspect this is why my friend Bob (actually his wife Krystal) has been trying for months to set me up on a blind date with (I’m told) a very special friend of theirs named Sally. I am basically a private person and being single certainly has it’s advantages but sharing your love with someone who loves you back is a special feeling and I guess I’ve been missing that feeling more and more lately. So, after careful consideration (and more than a couple of beers with Bob), I decided to man up and agree to the blind date.

Our shared Shrimp Cocktail is fantastic (she even insisted I eat the 5th and final shrimp) and then it happened. She asked me where I worked. I answered vaguely and could tell she wasn’t impressed. This seemed to add fuel to her inquisitor fire and she let loose with what seemed to me to be something akin to what the detainees at Gitmo must go through…
Have you ever been married? No.
Do you have any kids? Not that I’m aware of.
How many jobs have you had? Seven.
Have you always lived here? No, I’ve moved many times.
What TV shows do you watch? You mean, which don’t I watch.
Where do your parents live? Somewhere in Idaho - we don’t stay in touch.
Do you have any brothers and sisters? Five brothers - seven sisters.
Where do they live? Beats me.
What would you do if Scott Baio walked in right now? Not a damn thing.
Ever use illegal drugs? No, but I can tell you there is quite a profit in selling them.
Do you smoke? Not since you got here.
Do you travel much? None of your business.
Do you live in a house or an apartment? House.
Is that your second drink? I guess so.
Do you own the house? Do any of us really “own” anything?
Have you ever been to an IKEA? Not since the incident.
Boxers or briefs? Commando.
Do you use the snooze button in the morning? No, can’t quite figure it out.
Don’t you think cell phones are just a fad? That’s a pretty stupid question don’t you think?
Do you go to church? If by “church” you mean place of worship then no.
Do you own any real estate? Disneyland - but only the third parking spot in the “Goofy” section.
What are your hobbies? Does Obsessive/Compulsive Disorder count?
How long have you known Bob and Krystal? Since the accident.
Don’t you just love their triplets Bob Jr, Rob and Bobby? Who?
What kind of car do you drive? ‘71 Chevy Vega - only six payments left till it’s mine.
Isn’t that your third drink? No, I had one when you went to the can.
Are you close to your mother? You mean sexually?
What size shoes do you wear? 9 and 10 and a half.
Have you ever been to a foreign country? I spent a night in Paris, Texas once.
Can you cook? Do I look like a woman to you?
Do you go out to movies much? Does porn count?
Don’t you think Angie and Brad should adopt a baby from Darfur? Who are Angie and Brad?
How do you feel about plastic surgery? Only if you’re working your way through college.
Home school, private school or public school? Public - kids need to learn how to fight these days.
What is with the price of gas these days? How the hell would I know?
What is your favorite color? Plaid.
Which side of the bed do you like to sleep on? The clean side.
Don’t you think President Obama is the most handsome president ever? No. I’ve always felt Van Buren had a certain undeniable sexiness about him.
Do you think Elvis is really dead? Who cares. Hip hop rules!
Four! Are you an alcoholic? Actually five, you missed one remember. Also, this is a double so I guess it’s really six. You got a problem with that?
Do you dream in color? Only my violent ‘Nam flashbacks are in color.
Any history of heart attack in your family? Oh yeah, bunches.
Do you know any martial arts? No, but I’m packing heat if you need it.
Isn’t antique shopping fun? Again, do I look like a woman to you?
Why was Charles Manson so darn angry? Not sure…I’ll ask him when we’re IM’ing tonight.

This went right on through the main course (Filet for me, Grilled Snapper with Mango for her) and much to my chagrin rolled right into dessert.

$175 bucks (with tip) and no second date. I’ve replayed the evening over and over in my head and I can’t quite put my finger on exactly what went wrong. Maybe I should have protected certain information about myself. I mean, I totally underestimated her ability to exploit my weaknesses. I guess I never really thought about how vulnerable I was or the risk I was taking on this blind date. Next time I’m totally going to come up with some ways to protect myself and who knows…maybe I’ll even get a second date.

Keep the Faith!
Revelator

Long Tall Sally - Little Richard

Posted in Vulnerabilities | Print | No Comments »

20. January 2009 by Layne.

“Will that be all for you today sir?”
“Yeah, that’ll do it.”
“And what is your phone number sir?”
“I don’t have one.”
“Your cell, your house, wife’s cell - which ever you prefer sir. Any one will do.”
“I prefer not to give you my phone number.”
“Fine. Can I just have your email address then?”
“No.”
“No, you don’t have one or no, you won’t give it to me.”
“That’s right.”
“Well which is it sir? Do you have an email address?”
“Yes. I have three actually.”
“Then which would you like to give me today sir?”
“Pardon me?”
“Which of your three email addresses would you like to give me sir?”
“How about none of them. Does that work for you?”
“Fine. Whatever. Your home address will do for our records.”
“Ok, go with that then.”
“Well, I need you to give that to me sir.”
“Give what to you?”
“Your home address sir.”
“You need my home address?”
“Yeah.”
“For the purchase of four triple-A batteries I am required to provide you with my home address?”
“Or a phone number, or email address. As I said, whichever you prefer.”
“As I said, I prefer none of the above.”
“Sir, you’re holding up the line.”
“That’s ok, I’m in no hurry.”

I’ve been through this little dance of denial more times than I care to remember and I’m getting damn tired of it. And even though I’m an OPSEC guy it’s not all about the information. I’m pretty confident that my home phone, cell phone, email address and home address are readily available to anyone with a reasonable understanding of how to find these things so I’m not full-on trying to protect this info.

No, the real reason is I resent that when stores request this information they try to hide the fact that the personal information they collect is going straight to the marketing department. Also, that they act like this is part of the sales process - that I must give them the information as part of the sale. Notice that they always request this information during, and not after, the transaction. And more and more people are just giving in and providing whatever information is requested by the 22 year old running the register.

Me? I pay with cash and deny all requests for information. Mostly, I just like the unbelieving look on thier faces when I say no but also I wonder what information they’ll want next. Phone, address, email seems innocent enough but now that we are used to providing this info without much thought - what will they want next year? Or five years from now?

Keep the Faith!
Revelator

Shop Around - Smokey Robinson and the Miracles

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13. January 2009 by Layne.

Today I got yet another call from a long time OPSEC Program Manager saying that they had to foreclose on his OPSEC program. Rising OPSEC costs with no foreseable returns has buried many an OPSEC program recently. I know you’ve read the news accounts and experts from around the country are calling this an OPSEC recession or perhaps even an OPSEC depression. More to the point, an OPSEC depression that resembles - and may even be worse - than the Great OPSEC Depression of the late 70’s.

I guess to fully understand the problem we need to deal with exactly how we define recession and depression. In Operations Security, the term recession generally describes the reduction of the gross OPSEC product (GOP) for at least two quarters. The standard dictionary definition is “a period of reduced OPSEC activity.” The United States-based National Bureau of OPSEC Research (NBOR) defines OPSEC recession as: “a significant decline in OPSEC activity spread across the country, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in a lack of real OPSEC growth.” But does that accurately describe the current state of OPSEC affairs or do we need a stronger description? Perhaps this will do: An OPSEC depression is a sustained, long downturn in OPSEC. It is more severe than a recession, which is seen as a normal downturn in the OPSEC cycle. Considered a rare but extreme form of recession, a depression is characterized by abnormal increases in threat, vulnerabilities, risk, restriction of countermeasures, as well as highly volatile relative OPSEC value fluctuations, mostly devaluations. Yeah, that sounds more like it but I say to you that all is not lost…not yet at least.

What OPSEC needs right now is a stimulous package. Passage of an OPSEC Stimulous package by the Interagency OPSEC Stimulous Syndicate (IOSS) could be a critical step in OPSECs recovery, but as important as it is, it’s only the beginning of what I think all of you understand is going to be a long and difficult process of turning our OPSEC around. The current proposed stimulous package features nearly 20 dollars for renewable OPSEC and 11 bucks to modernize the Operations Security Professionals Association (OSPA) — steps former OSPA Ombudsman Bob Bitchen warmly endorsed weeks ago as a downpayment on the strategy for fighting OPSEC change. Supporters of the measure denied this amounted to diluting OPSEC, which had alarmed major OPSEC groups like OSPA.

Much of the justification for IOSS intervention in the form of the Stimulous Package comes from the assertion by many outside our community that OPSEC has failed. One OPSEC manager scoffed at this idea. “OPSEC programs are working fine, but they’re giving people answers that they don’t like, so people cry OPSEC failure.” Vulnerability and risk are high? That’s because program managers are afraid of a prolonged OPSEC depression. And well they should be.

To understand how the things went awry this time, go back a couple of decades, to a time when you could walk up to your OPSEC Manager and speak to someone who knew your name, your vulnerabilities and kept a record of your countermeasures. OPSEC was a simpler affair, and a no-nonsense one: If you didn’t write a CIL, understand your threat, identify vulnerabilites, assess risk then you didn’t get effective countermeasures. We all did our job and risk was lowered across the board. But lately falling interest in OPSEC and reliance on technology has lowered the impact any one OPSEC Manager can have on an organization, program or combat situation. We all wanted a piece of the OPSEC dream and by doing that, we forgot about the risks.

Most of the words above were borrowed from current news stories about the tough economic times this country is facing and while I tried to have some fun with it I found myself at the end without a viable point. And then I reread what I had written and it jumped out at me right there at the end - it’s all about the risk folks. Stay focused on lowering the risk to your unit, organization, mission or combat op and everything else will work itself out. Keep fighting the good fight and remember to always…

Keep the Faith!
Revelator

Manic Depression - Jimi Hendrix

Posted in Program Management | Print | No Comments »

13. January 2009 by Layne.

Ladies and Gentlemen I’ve been getting lazy lately. Sorry about not updating more often. As the National OPSEC Conference in about a month away I suspect I’ll become more and more inspired. Until then I wanted to share something that the President of OSPA shared with the membership. Enjoy…

“So what’s so important about OPSEC, anyways?”

You may have heard that more than once. Some of you tell me that you hear it nearly every day. Those of you that are receiving this already know the answer- that’s why you’ve signed up to this mailing list. Some of you have even seen it firsthand.

We all know the story- about the Vietnam Purple Dragon Team, and how they determined the reason that the enemy was able to gain advance knowledge of missions and operations. On a higher level, OPSEC was developed to maintain mission secrecy and, thus, the advantage in combat. But to the individual soldier, it’s much more personal than that. OPSEC was there to save their lives and get them home again. To them, OPSEC was a way to help make sure that they wouldn’t die because of something that was simply beyond their control- be it their buddy with a big mouth or the letter home that was found in the trash.

OPSEC saves lives today. OPSEC is still there for the soldier as s/he is suiting up for a midnight raid. Or getting ready to jump (out of a perfectly good airplane, mind you) into hostile territory. OPSEC isn’t a box to check or a program to get out of the way- OPSEC is that almost ‘mystical’ thing that helps ensure that “our boys and girls” on the front lines are not put into harm’s way needlessly.

But, of course, today OPSEC goes much deeper than that. OPSEC is in every Government agency because it applies and helps ensure our overall safety as a Nation (and multiple Nations at that!). And, what’s more, OPSEC is gaining a foot hold in corporations, communities, and even families as a way to save lives and livelihoods- to preserve safety and profits alike. So the next time that someone asks you, “What’s so important about OPSEC, anyways?”, you can look them square in the eye and tell them, “Everything.”

Keep up the good fight.

Chris Cox
OSPA, President

“In My Life” - The Beatles

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10. January 2009 by Layne.

To merge or not to merge - that is the question facing the OPSEC community right now. OPS and OSPA are currently in merger talks and no one is quite sure how it will play out. High intrigue indeed. Me? I’ve been a little too close to the situation and I’m staying out of it. Suffice to say that both sides know exactly where I stand. And this is exactly what every member of each organization should be doing. Whoever you are with you need to voice an opinion to whatever organization you belong to. Belong to both? Then I suggest you let both know how you feel. The leadership of both organizations are trying to do what it best for its membership - and that is you. It’s not the Board of Directors job to do just what they think is best. No; it is their duty to do what is best for their members. To do this you need to let them know how you feel. So I stronly recommend you go to the OPS and/or OSPA web pages, figure out how to contact your leadership and let them know how you feel about a merge. Historically, the OPSEC community has been happy not getting involved and that is absolutely the wrong way to go. Take a stand - make your voice heard.

President@opsecprofessionals.org - Chris Cox
President@opsecsociety.org - Daryl Haegley

Keep the Faith!
Revelator

The Times They Are A-Changin’ - Bob Dylan

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