In these days of heightened terrorist threats, military families have also become a target. There are numerous guidelines from OPSEC (Operations Security) about the ways that military families can and cannot share information.
In the past few weeks, ISIS sympathizers/terrorists have begun posting information about military families on the internet. They’ve shared photos, addresses, and other information that helps their organizations identify these families easier.
In so many ways, we’re an easy group to find. We’re proud of the job our loved one in the military is performing, and we’re not shy about bumper stickers proclaiming that fact. So our vehicles and our homes ring loud with proof of patriotism that goes beyond the norm. For many, there are also other car decals that can alert strangers that we have access to a military base.
OPSEC has already handed down guidelines of how military families can have a lower–safer–profile, so I won’t go into that here. But what concerns the rest of us, is how we can help, or hurt, that profile.
While these families can control–to a certain extent–the visibility of what they share, they can’t control what others share. Those well-meaning friends and family can also put them at risk. We need to be careful about the kinds of things we post on social media about these families, the pictures we share and the information we give.
Military families know it’s not okay to talk about deployments specifics because of security issues. The rest of the public isn’t always as savvy. So here are some things we can do to be a shield for the military families in our midst, instead of adding to their vulnerability.
1) Never post specific information about a friend’s upcoming deployment, including dates, location and duration.
2) Make certain the location service is turned off for photos on your smart phone before you take pictures of a military family. If not, you’ll be embedding geocodes into the images, making it easy to pinpoint their physical location.
3) Don’t ask leading questions on social media and military blogs. These could include things like, “I heard your husband was being deployed soon, when’s he leaving?”
4) Refrain from using last names and tagging military families online.
5) Don’t ever share information about a military family with a stranger.
These tips will help keep our military families safe, while their loved ones serve. Let’s join together to keep these heroes at home out of harm’s way.
