Anyone have or know any UNCLASSIFIED OPSEC stories that have a negative ending to it? (for training purposes)

Really... 62 views and not ONE story?

Yup, but due to the negativity and still current AD “peeps” I’ll hold it for a few more years

Yeah well, that makes sense. I was thinking more along the lines of High Profile stories. Stories LONG unclassified. Stories that because of lack of OPSEC something happened.

(e.g., I know there's an old story of a military member who never waivered from their work route and because of that and because of his particular job he was targeted... and unfortunately he was killed)

Send me an email on Global

This message has been edited. Last edited by: rvacoast,

quote:

Originally posted by rvacoast:
Send me an email on Global


Benjamin Colbert

I'm not on CG Global daily or even weekly for that matter. I'm a Reservist and now my "real" job is working for the Army. I requested you as a friend. Seems I can't send anything to you otherwise.

I'd guess you were thinking of new or relevant ones, but here is an older one with a twist:

Seems there was this little Military base, in a completely out of the way area. They accidently violated OPSEC in requesting assistance with repairing their only fresh water maker, which was their only source of drinking water. An adversary found out they were about to run out of water and attacked!

...page 3:

The 'slip' was an elaborate rouse! See, on the OTHER half of the operation, the adversary was using bad code practice. We had their code broken except for the geo-references. Once they sent the attack orders, we verified the code name for our base. They got a little surprise!

Of course, this was back in the day when Wray was just a BMC and Stan ran the gun turret.

Holy crap that won't work. Too funny. I actually need a story for some training.

unfortunately, it may be hard to find the stories as we usually don't know what happened with poor OPSEC issues. Why? becuase our 'adversaries' usually don't thumb their nose at us after they take advantage of our weaknesses.

By the way- if it interests you, that story was about Wake Island, and it was a major turning point for WWII. If we hadn't got lucky on that little slip, could have had a major effect on the outcome of WWII.

No they don't - but we do use the stories as "lessons learned" which is why we learn about espionage and WHO has been involved.

If I recall correctly, the Dice-Man used to have a lot of examples. Google that name, or find some OLD RM types. He was a civilian/contract Security Trainer.

I went to a "Dice-Man" seminar about 3 weeks ago. He was awesome and anyone reading this post who is the Security Officer for a unit - I HIGHLY recommend hiring him for OPSEC/INFOSEC training. He's entertaing and definitely keeps you interested.

quote:

Originally posted by Mightyz90_93:
unfortunately, it may be hard to find the stories as we usually don't know what happened with poor OPSEC issues. Why? becuase our 'adversaries' usually don't thumb their nose at us after they take advantage of our weaknesses.

By the way- if it interests you, that story was about Wake Island, and it was a major turning point for WWII. If we hadn't got lucky on that little slip, could have had a major effect on the outcome of WWII.

Mighty_Z it was actually Midway Island, just prior to the battle of Midway. Wake Island fell shortly after Pearl Harbor.

Crud, you are of course right. Thanks for having my back!

How about the 1 where the rest of the world knew about the U.S. was deploying large forces to Saudi Arabia in August 1990 before it was officially announced.

All because an AF Airman (or Sergeant) was doing their job in requesting overflight clearances for the airlift.

You guys/gals remember when the news media welcomed our troops on the beach in Somalia

Regarding media, this STILL frosts me to this day!

On 25 Feb 90, a SCUD missile exploded over/onto a warehouse containing soldiers from an Army Quartmaster Company from Harrisburg, PA.

This warehouse was between Dhahran Airbase and the Port of Dammam where my PSU was at. I was getting ready to go underway when the missile exploded (I recall it had been hit by a Patriot, but not before the warhead separated from the rocket body and fell).

Anyways, while underway, I was listening to A-FARTS (as AFRTS was affectionately known) on my Walkman (Yeah, WALKMAN, the Neanderthal Big Brother to the iPod) and heard a reporter talking about being at the explosion site, with Army MPs looking all stern and upset. He then announced, "I found a sign. I don't know if I should be doing this, but it says the (such & such, I don't recall the unit number) Quartermaster Company, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania..." at which time A-FARTS cut him off, returned to the studio and immediately issued an apologize.

My shipmates looked at me like I'd gone crazy, rant & raving, stomping & swearing on the boat unti I told them what had just happened. There were 28 soldiers killed from that one SCUD attack, and that a$$hole just announced the explosion to the world. You know DAMN well any of the family members hearing that back home were also going nuts trying to find out if their loved ones in the unit were okay, hurt, or killed.

Okay, I'm back off my rant again. Had to go back and fix QUITE a few mistakes while typing this...

quote:

I was listening to A-FARTS (as AFRTS was affectionately known) on my Walkman (Yeah, WALKMAN, the Neanderthal Big Brother to the iPod)

Jerry, the walkman would actually be the pre-neanderthal grandfather of the IPOD. There was, of course, discmans in between

quote:

Jerry, the walkman would actually be the pre-neanderthal grandfather of the IPOD. There was, of course, discmans in between

Before which there were portable cassette players.....and before that....transistor radios.

From WWII... Civilian War Worker Arrested for Disclosure of Convoy Schedule. (AP)BOSTON It was disclosed by the Coast Guard and Officials at the War Department a woman was arrested for the improper disclosure of a East Coast convoy sailing schedule. This information resulted in the loss of 230 merchant seaman and a number of ships with their important war cargo bound for England. The ships lost were the SS Gadstone Purchase, SS Wisconsin Cheese, SS Corrugated Carton, SS Marine Scraper, SS Lard Bearer and the SS Charles B. Noble. Among the missing crewman lost in the deadly U-Boat blitz, was the war workers son, Seaman Larry Blastow of New York. Mrs. Hunhelper(not her real name for fear of reprisals) was taken into custody last Tuesday and arraigned in Federal court. "I feel so punk" she remarked at the hearing. Questioned by authorities she gave the following narrative of this treasonous incident; "I stopped at the drugstore like I always do for a milk shake when my shift was over at the plant. I have a job there of inspecting those top secret radar gizmos, you know the one's they are putting on the new high speed destroyers at the Kaiser shipyard. Anyway, this nice old gentleman sat down next to me at the soda counter. I didn't think much about it at the time. He was wearing a leather trench coat, had a coke bottle monocle piece in one eye, and one of those funny European hats, you know, the type with a whisk broom in the hat band. Lots of people come in there, like all the Norden bomb site engineers stop by on the way home. Some times it gets too crowded 'cause there's people working on some kind of atom-splitting super bomb thing that stop in for a sandwhich on their way to work. Anyhow this gentleman, he said his name was Hans something-or-other, ordered some milch and und strudel and we struck up a nice conversation. He told me he just arrived from out of town and was looking for information on war work as his families company specialized in building demolition. I told him that his accent was a little tricky to understand, but he chuckled because most folk from Berlin have the same accent. I didn't know there was a Berlin New Hampshire, but I figured most New Englanders talk a little funny anyway. Then he told me how his relatives invented the Dewey Decimel System, Coo Coo clocks and pocket lint. In fact he confided they were branching out into a new way to deliver the mail, using some kind of rocket, they were planning on trying it out on England first. Anyhow, he excused himslf and left to make a phone call, he was so polite. If I had only known". FBI Director Hoover stated his agents traced the phone call from the drugstore to an unlisted number in Germany.
While awaiting the hearing's outcome, Mrs. Hunhelper speculated where she might be interned if convicted. "I hope they send me to a penitentiary that has warm weather, you know, like near the air base in New Mexico where they're building those airplanes that can fly without propellers. Gosh, I wish I had kept my big mouth shut!" Officials state that Mrs. Hunhelper, if convicted, could be sentenced to 250 years for treason. However, it was pointed out that with good behavior it could reduce the sentence by half.