Miltary Security and Blogs

Noah Shachtman has the story of a recent audit of military websites and blogs for operational security:

For years, members of the military brass have been warning that soldiers' blogs could pose a security threat by leaking sensitive wartime information. But a series of online audits, conducted by the Army, suggests that official Defense Department websites post far more potentially-harmful than blogs do.

The audits, performed by the Army Web Risk Assessment Cell between January 2006 and January 2007, found at least 1,813 violations of operational security policy on 878 official military websites. In contrast, the 10-man, Manassas, Virginia, unit discovered 28 breaches, at most, on 594 individual blogs during the same period.(links in original omitted)

I don't find this particularly surprising for two reasons.

The first is that in terms of broad based operational security, most grunts on the ground don't have access to a lot of secured information. Need to know still exists in the military and really, does a private or corporal blogging about being in Iraq really need to know about plans for future raids? No.

If an enlisted violates op-sec, it is pretty serious. But if an officer does it, it can be a court martial offenses, so both groups are either limited through lack of information or concern for their career.

The second reason should be patently obvious. Violations of operational security means increased risk to life and limb. Blogging soldiers have a vested interest in doing everything possible to minimize risk to life and limb. If posting information on their whereabouts and operational details increases their bodily damage risk, you can bet that the average blogging grunt is going to go out of is way to make sure that information cannot be found in their blog.

On the other hand, Pentagon REMFs (that is Rear Echelon Mother F----rs) don't have the same safety concerns.

Hat Tip: The Instapundit.