discussion replies 49

Please reply to both students discussion.

D1. Good day class,

Operation Security (OPSEC) is a method used to protect critical information. Just like the U.S and other countries, ISIS also utilizes this process to ensure that their Jihadist’s are protecting their information as to ensure mission success. Certain advice that ISIS gives their recruits applies to our own 5-step OPSEC process.

ISIS knows that their enemies, which are the Western countries, are their enemies, making them “threats” so they will do whatever it takes to prevent their critical information from falling into their hands. “Dropbox is held up for special condemnation—because Edward Snowden advised against using it, and because President Bush’s former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is on the company’s investors board.” (Staff, 2015). This an example of analyzing the threat in the 5 step OPSEC process.

The ISIS Security Manual states “disable the GPS tagging feature on mobile phones to avoid leaking location data when taking photos” (Staff, 2015). Technology in these times come with a GPS tracking system, which harmless at first can be detrimental to your mission when your location is given on Facebook or Google maps. Deactivating those features is the best practice for keeping your location private. This ISIS advice relates to the Applying countermeasures step of the OPSEC process.

D2. When reading the article about ISIS and OPSEC to give recruits advice on how to eliminate the ability to track their locations and avoid leaking information about their plans. The step that seemed the most like the article was applying countermeasures which would be utilizing encrypted email and encrypted phones like Cryptophone. The ability to track someone’s movements is one of the easiest ways to determine if their travel is questionable and their actions coincide with chatter of a potential attack. I also believe that some of the article fell under assessing risk, because before they recommend sending plans for attacks over phones or emails they want to make sure they are utilizing special encryption programs to eliminate the potential for intercepting plans and preventing a terrorist attack.