Richmond, Va. –
The primary goal of the Defense Logistics Agency Intelligence’s Operations Security Program is to increase mission effectiveness by identifying and protecting critical information.
“Everyone who works at DLA has access to critical information that may reveal details about Defense Logistics Agency and military operations,” said Stephen Robinson, a security manager with DLA Intelligence who works on Defense Supply Center Richmond, Virginia. “In the wrong hands, this information can be exploited and cause casualties, mission failure, or help to advance the goals of an adversary using our research and development or process improvement.”
Robinson said that DLA faces several threats from foreign intelligence services, terrorist organizations, criminals, and hackers.
He urged employees to take a moment to think about all the information they process each day.
“You are the first line of defense. If you don’t take steps to protect that information, it will be easily exploitable,” he said.
Common vulnerabilities include recycling paper.
“It may seem like a good idea, but those documents won’t be destroyed until it is too late,” he said.
Recycling is frequently sold to the highest bidder and there is no telling what will happen to the documents once they are out of government control. As a reminder, DLA Aviation has a User-Shred policy (access requires a DLA Common Access Card) which states that if you print it, it is your responsibility to shred it.
In January 2021, DLA Intelligence introduced DLA Instruction: DLAi 5200.48, Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) (access requires a DLA Common Access Card.) Items that are currently on the Aviation Critical Information List should now be considered as CUI. In addition, OPSEC falls under CUI categories of Intelligence and Provisional. Under the Organization Index Grouping Intelligence, operations security is critical information determined to give evidence of the planning and execution of sensitive (frequently classified) government activities and for the Provisional grouping, operations security is unclassified information that could constitute an indicator of U.S. government intentions, capabilities, operations, activities or otherwise threaten/compromise operations security. This information can be found at CUI Categories | National Archives.
For additional guidance, employees may contact Stephen Robinson.