OPSEC in Warfare and Terrorism “The enemy aggressively "reads" our open source and continues to exploit such information for use against our forces. Some soldiers continue to post sensitive information to internet websites and blogs, e.g., photos depicting weapon system vulnerabilities and tactics, techniques, and procedures. Such OPSEC violations needlessly place lives at risk and degrade the effectiveness of our operations.” Peter Schoomaker (1). Operations Security (OPSEC), while a relatively recent term, is an operations enabler that has been practiced in varying degrees throughout history. This document will explore the history of OPSEC as it’s known today, discuss the process and its role in disrupting the capabilities of adversarial forces using multiple collection and planning models and examine the rapidly advancing technical capabilities of threat vectors. OPSEC as a concept was developed during the Vietnam War under the command of Admiral Ulyssess Sharp. The mission of the newly-established “Purple Dragon” team was to determine how the enemy was able to gather information on military operations (2). The team was able to understand the need to alter tactics and procedures to reduce an adversary's ability to make educated predictions based on the knowledge of routines (3). Post-war OPSEC was formally established as a national program when President Ronald Regan signed the National Security Decision Directive Number 298 in 1988 (4/ p1). Although the program was created as a result of the Purple Dragon team’s notable efforts in the Vietnam War; OPSEC as a concept has been a combat enabler (and a lack thereof has been an impediment to effectiveness) throughout history.

President George Washington understood this well, as did Sun Tzu almost a millennia before (2). During the Revolutionary War,