operations security measures

Methods and means to gain and maintain essential secrecy about critical information. The following categories apply. a. action control — The objective is to eliminate indicators or the vulnerability of actions to exploitation by adversary intelligence systems. Personnel will select what actions to undertake; decide whether or not to execute actions; and determine the “who,” “when,” “where,” and “how” for actions necessary to accomplish tasks. b. countermeasures. The objective is to disrupt effective adversary information gathering or prevent their recognition of indicators when collected materials are processed. Use diversions, camouflage, concealment, jamming, threats, police powers, and force against adversary information gathering and processing capabilities. c. counteranalysis. The objective is to prevent accurate interpretations of indicators during adversary analysis of collected materials. This is done by confusing the adversary analyst through deception techniques such as covers. operations security planning guidance. Guidance that serves as the blueprint for operations security planning by all functional elements throughout the organization. It defines the critical information that requires protection from adversary appreciations, taking into account friendly and adversary goals, estimated key adversary questions, probable adversary knowledge, desirable and harmful adversary appreciations, and pertinent intelligence system threats. It also should outline provisional operations security measures to ensure the requisite essential secrecy.