When a story becomes a threat: the critical need for new OPSEC policies

Despite 10 long months of war, lessons of the 7th October should have been learned not only by Israel but also by the larger security of modern armies worldwide. IDF still suffers with major operation security lapses after ten months of conflict and with 105 hostages still under custody by Hamas.?Haaretz's exhaustive investigation revealed that sensitive information on IDF position in Gaza had become easily accessible online, thereby posing a serious threat for soldiers on the ground and Israel general population. Through this?occurrence, it?exposes a systematic flaw in military operations that is becoming ever more dangerous in an over-connected world.

The core of this issue is a basic one between the omnipresence of social media in our intimacy and the mandatory demands of military secrecy. Most of the soldiers in Israel, where military service is required, are young, technologically savvy populations raised in a hyperconnected society.? The lines separating private and public life are completely blurred for these soldiers. ?Contrary to the older generation, social media has become the primary way for these soldiers to socialize, creating an environment where they record and share every experience, including those related to military service.

The IDF's OPSEC breach raises a critical question: how can modern armies—especially those mostly made of conscripts—keep operational secrecy in a time when every smartphone could be a security threat???The difficulty is not special to Israel. A generation living much of their life online is causing issues for armies all across the globe, and the effects of these new weaknesses could be catastrophic.

Given that the IDF's situation highlights the inherent vulnerabilities in conscript-based armies. Although highly educated, young population?are also very immersed?in digital culture. Many of them?have an instinctive need to socialize?with friends and family via social media. But this same instinct gravely compromises OPSEC. Geotagged images, status updates, even apparently benign messages can expose crucial data on troop movements, positions, and tactics. Regarding Israel, this data has allegedly been exploited by terrorists to coordinate attacks, including those by Hamas, which caused sad losses on the civilian as well as military fronts.

?The consequences of this OPSEC failure go much beyond Israel's boundaries. For instance, Russian and Ukrainian forces have been using social media and other online platforms to obtain intelligence. As in other conflicts, the digital footprints of forces can be followed, examined, and used by enemies in real-time, transforming once-private correspondence into a lethal weapon. The battlefield?rapidly turned?into a hybrid area where conventional military tactics are mixed with cyber operations and information warfare as modern?warfare evolves.??Most armies are still not ready to completely handle the significant shift in the nature of conflict caused by an adversary's capacity to gather and use knowledge from digital sources.

Military forces worldwide have to rethink their strategy toward OPSEC if we are to handle this increasing threat. This necessitates a cultural shift within the military, emphasizing the importance of information security and the risks associated with digital communication, especially in countries where military service is mandatory, such as Israel, and where the troops are primarily young individuals accustomed to social media. This calls more than just changing policies or providing new guidelines.?We must first and foremost teach young soldiers about the risks associated with sharing information online. Emphasizing on information security more than is actually taught, and the need of OPSEC from the first phases of training, this education should start before they even put on their uniforms in high school. Soldiers have to be made to realize that what they publish online might compromise not only their fellow soldiers but also the mission as a whole and endanger their own families, friends, and close ones.

On top of that, the allocation of resources to OPSEC ought to be given top attention by the Israeli government?rather than second thought as it is at the moment. This implies raising training budgets as well as technological and personnel dedicated to information security budgets. Strong OPSEC is as crucial to a military's success in a time when the boundaries between cyber and physical warfare are continuously eroding as any weapon or piece of equipment.

For Israel, this involves taking action right away to fix deficiencies in its current OPSEC policies and setting an example for other countries that face similar issues. Knowledge itself has always been a weapon, and since the war between humans started, protecting this sensitive data has been imperative for Israel and the Western military community. These OPSEC policies have to be adjusted right away, decision-makers should be creative for those challenges and protect not only the troops serving but also the population they are initially supposed to protect. Anyone cannot ignore the high stakes involved in this matter. Lately, the greatest threat on the modern battlefield could come from a soldier's smartphone rather than from an enemy's weapon.