thedrifter
11-29-05, 11:35 AM
December 05, 2005
Blog Brother: Army eyes what troops post
Soldiers cited for good, bad security practices
By Kelly Kennedy
Times staff writer
One year ago, Army 1st Lt. Neil Prakash decided to brag about his tank crew on his blog, “Armor Geddon.”
“I wanted to get out the picture that most combat isn’t that scary,” said Prakash, who served as a tank platoon leader in Iraq with 2nd Battalion, 63rd Armor Regiment, 1st Infantry Division. “It’s fun. And these soldiers love their job.”
One month ago, the Silver Star recipient found out the Army was using his blog as an example of bad operations-security practices.
“A friend said, ‘Hey! My commander made me read this opsec stuff about your site,’” Prakash said. “No one ever notified me about it.”
To better inform troops about Internet security measures, Army officials posted opsec lessons at Army Knowledge Online. They included in those lessons examples of Web logs that do a good job with security, as well as examples of those that violated opsec.
Soldiers on that list — for good and bad sites — were not informed about the training, and Prakash said no one asked him to take down his site at avengerredsix.blogspot.com.
“My command approved,” Prakash said. “It’s a very old description, and the stuff they’re talking about is almost a year old.”
The opsec lessons include videos Prakash’s crew took while on patrol in Fallujah.
“It was awesome,” said Prakash, who earned a Silver Star for saving his tank task force during an attack in the Sunni Triangle. “We’d be fighting and turn on the cameras. We would never show people dying or anything disrespectful, but one of the soldiers put it to music, and we posted it.”
Prakash said he never posted anything without asking his unit intelligence officer first, but the opsec lessons say the video could be used by enemy fighters as propaganda against U.S. troops.
“I didn’t want any heat,” he said, “so I just took that stuff down.”
The opsec lessons are part of the Army’s new campaign to tighten online security. The high-priority nature of the campaign is underscored by a video released Nov. 10 and posted on the AKO Web site in which Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker outlines the Army’s concerns.
The Army requires that all soldiers in Iraq register their Web logs with their commanders. Mobile training teams are being sent to train soldiers down to the brigade level to ensure everyone knows the rules about the Internet.
“We are proactively taking action to prevent enemy access,” said Army spokesman Lt. Col. Carl Ey. “The blogs are a new kind of phenomena we’re dealing with now.”
Ey said the rules have not changed, but the medium has. As soldiers post photos or messages for their family members and friends, they may not realize they could give away their locations or missions — just as they could with letters or phone calls.
Army National Guard Spc. Mark Miner received kudos in the opsec lessons for his blog, Boots in Baghdad, at www.bootsinbaghdad.blogspot.com.
“I knew they used me as an example, but no one ever contacted me,” Miner said. “I did register my blog with my command.”
Miner said he sent a message to his unit public affairs representative with his name and Web site address, then continued to exchange e-mails when he had questions.
“We do, as soldiers, have our right to freedom of speech, but we’re soldiers first,” Miner said. “But I think it’s important to have blogs because I think a lot of Americans would be inspired if they knew all that we do.”
For that reason, he has written about taking supplies to local schools or chickens to local villages. Miner served in Iraq with C Company, 2nd Battalion, 124th Infantry Regiment, of Jacksonville, Fla.
He also avoided the same security violations Prakash said he looked for: mission times, route schedules or the number of troops in a movement.
Capt. William Roberts, an Army spokesman in Iraq, said all soldiers coming into Iraq go through a briefing about inappropriate photos because of a recent scandal over soldiers posting pictures of corpses to a Web site.
“None of it’s new,” Roberts said. “It’s just being strictly enforced.”
Soldiers also must clear photos through their unit public affairs representative, Roberts said.
Enforcing blogging registration could be tough, because bloggers are often anonymous and can post to their sites from Internet cafes set up in Iraq or from laptop computers in their rooms.
Prakash said he has received kudos from the Army.
“Now, they want to transfer the blog to Army Knowledge Online to connect the military with the bloggers,” Prakash said. “Someone out there feels like this is valuable.”
Kelly Kennedy covers the Army.
Ellie
Blog Brother: Army eyes what troops post
Soldiers cited for good, bad security practices
By Kelly Kennedy
Times staff writer
One year ago, Army 1st Lt. Neil Prakash decided to brag about his tank crew on his blog, “Armor Geddon.”
“I wanted to get out the picture that most combat isn’t that scary,” said Prakash, who served as a tank platoon leader in Iraq with 2nd Battalion, 63rd Armor Regiment, 1st Infantry Division. “It’s fun. And these soldiers love their job.”
One month ago, the Silver Star recipient found out the Army was using his blog as an example of bad operations-security practices.
“A friend said, ‘Hey! My commander made me read this opsec stuff about your site,’” Prakash said. “No one ever notified me about it.”
To better inform troops about Internet security measures, Army officials posted opsec lessons at Army Knowledge Online. They included in those lessons examples of Web logs that do a good job with security, as well as examples of those that violated opsec.
Soldiers on that list — for good and bad sites — were not informed about the training, and Prakash said no one asked him to take down his site at avengerredsix.blogspot.com.
“My command approved,” Prakash said. “It’s a very old description, and the stuff they’re talking about is almost a year old.”
The opsec lessons include videos Prakash’s crew took while on patrol in Fallujah.
“It was awesome,” said Prakash, who earned a Silver Star for saving his tank task force during an attack in the Sunni Triangle. “We’d be fighting and turn on the cameras. We would never show people dying or anything disrespectful, but one of the soldiers put it to music, and we posted it.”
Prakash said he never posted anything without asking his unit intelligence officer first, but the opsec lessons say the video could be used by enemy fighters as propaganda against U.S. troops.
“I didn’t want any heat,” he said, “so I just took that stuff down.”
The opsec lessons are part of the Army’s new campaign to tighten online security. The high-priority nature of the campaign is underscored by a video released Nov. 10 and posted on the AKO Web site in which Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker outlines the Army’s concerns.
The Army requires that all soldiers in Iraq register their Web logs with their commanders. Mobile training teams are being sent to train soldiers down to the brigade level to ensure everyone knows the rules about the Internet.
“We are proactively taking action to prevent enemy access,” said Army spokesman Lt. Col. Carl Ey. “The blogs are a new kind of phenomena we’re dealing with now.”
Ey said the rules have not changed, but the medium has. As soldiers post photos or messages for their family members and friends, they may not realize they could give away their locations or missions — just as they could with letters or phone calls.
Army National Guard Spc. Mark Miner received kudos in the opsec lessons for his blog, Boots in Baghdad, at www.bootsinbaghdad.blogspot.com.
“I knew they used me as an example, but no one ever contacted me,” Miner said. “I did register my blog with my command.”
Miner said he sent a message to his unit public affairs representative with his name and Web site address, then continued to exchange e-mails when he had questions.
“We do, as soldiers, have our right to freedom of speech, but we’re soldiers first,” Miner said. “But I think it’s important to have blogs because I think a lot of Americans would be inspired if they knew all that we do.”
For that reason, he has written about taking supplies to local schools or chickens to local villages. Miner served in Iraq with C Company, 2nd Battalion, 124th Infantry Regiment, of Jacksonville, Fla.
He also avoided the same security violations Prakash said he looked for: mission times, route schedules or the number of troops in a movement.
Capt. William Roberts, an Army spokesman in Iraq, said all soldiers coming into Iraq go through a briefing about inappropriate photos because of a recent scandal over soldiers posting pictures of corpses to a Web site.
“None of it’s new,” Roberts said. “It’s just being strictly enforced.”
Soldiers also must clear photos through their unit public affairs representative, Roberts said.
Enforcing blogging registration could be tough, because bloggers are often anonymous and can post to their sites from Internet cafes set up in Iraq or from laptop computers in their rooms.
Prakash said he has received kudos from the Army.
“Now, they want to transfer the blog to Army Knowledge Online to connect the military with the bloggers,” Prakash said. “Someone out there feels like this is valuable.”
Kelly Kennedy covers the Army.
Ellie