US Forces allow social comms tools?

[buglerbilly]

Will the Pentagon Finally Get Web 2.0?

By Nathan Hodge March 1, 2010 | 9:51 am



On Friday, the Pentagon announced a new social media policy that will the troops to use Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites, within limits. True to form, Pentagon social media czar Price Floyd announced the policy change in a Twitter update.

It’s an important move, and has the potential to clear up the military’s longstanding confusion over web 2.0. Last summer, Noah broke the news that the Department of Defense was strongly considering a near-total ban on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. Not long after that, the Marine Corps banned Web 2.0 sites from its networks. But the crackdown also came as military services and top leaders embraced social networking tools to communicate with the public.

The new policy allows servicemembers to use the Defense Department’s unclassified networks to access everything from “SNS” (that’s “social networking sites” in Pentagon-speak) and “image and video hosting websites” to “personal, corporate or subject-specific blogs” (that’s us!) and “Wikis.” But it also gives commanders wide latitude to restrict access to preserve operational security. A Pentagon news release notes that the new policy allows commanders to “safeguard missions” by “temporarily limiting access to the Internet to preserve operations security or to address bandwidth constraints.”

So how has this been received? Don Faul, director of online operations at Facebook, applauded the move, saying the site had become a “beneficial link” between troops stationed overseas and their families back at home. And in response to Floyd’s announcement, Twitter user Nick Morgan voiced the same sentiment. “As a soldier who served abroad, I think the new social media policy is awesome,” he tweeted. “What a great way for troops to stay connected.”

Whether the military likes it or not, web 2.0 is already part of our cultural landscape. Military services have Facebook pages with hundreds of thousands of fans; the State Department now sees social networks as potent foreign policy tool; military planners even tapped social networking sites as way to help guide the Haiti relief effort. This policy is a belated effort to acknowledge that fact. Of course, there could be pushback, especially if hackers or cybercrooks exploit this new opennness to gain access to the military’s networks.

Later today, Price Floyd will be talking with bloggers, and we’ll be updating on the nuts and bolts of the new policy.

[PHOTO: U.S. Department of Defense]

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[buglerbilly]

The Pentagon’s New Social Media Policy: Your Turn

By Nathan Hodge March 1, 2010 | 2:00 pm



In a conversation this afternoon with bloggers, Defense Department social media czar Price Floyd said the Pentagon’s default option for web 2.0 was “open, not closed.”

The Pentagon’s new social media policy is supposed to ensure that people in uniform have access to sites like Twitter and Facebook, provided they follow common-sense rules about operational security. It’s also supposed to encourage the troops to tell their stories: Floyd said he wants “more, not less” blogging from the front lines.

Commanders, however, still have the power to restrict access to preserve bandwidth or maintain security. Things like gambling, porn or hate-crime related activity will remain strictly off limits.

So how is this working in practice? We here at Danger Room would like to know. Still not able to access your Facebook account? Having trouble reading your favorite milblogs? And is your boss really being encouraged to post Twitter updates? Sound off in the comments or drop me a line, and we’ll follow up with a fresh post.

[PHOTO: U.S. Department of Defense]

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[buglerbilly]

Why the Pentagon Doesn’t Want to Friend You

By Nathan Hodge March 2, 2010 | 1:29 pm



So! The Pentagon’s new “open-door” policy on social networking is, oh, around five days old. How’s that working out? The results of our totally unscientific reader survey are in.

Commenter “C2dude” said: “Called the IT help desk yesterday, and they hadn’t even heard of the new memorandum from the DOD … I had to forward it to them.”

A reader with U.S. European Command wrote in to complain: “EUCOM is still blocking access to Facebook and Twitter.”

An airman working with the Army in Haiti commented: “We have total access to GMail, Facebook, Twitter, etc. It’s pretty good because I can be in practically full contact with family at home while at the work station. My main issue is being friends on FB with my superintendent. He knows now that I am not working. Oops. Unfriend.”

Okay, so a mixed bag. Perhaps the biggest issue, though, is cultural. In a bloggers roundtable yesterday, Department of Defense social media czar Price Floyd said the Pentagon has to deal with the generational divide between people who grew up with MySpace and YouTube, and those who remember 5 1/4″ floppy disks and punch cards.

“Using social media I think is as much a cultural issue as it is an education one,” he said. “People who are coming into the military, they take all this for granted. They can’t imagine a world where one didn’t have access to these sort of sites.

“For those of us who are a little longer in the tooth, and I’d put myself in there, this is something that’s fairly new,” he added. “Only in the last couple years have we discovered this and found how useful it can be. I think people at the most senior levels understand it as well. I think in the middle, we have some education, cultural shifting to do. And then that’s going to take a little time.”

[PHOTO: U.S. Department of Defense]

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[buglerbilly]

Israelis Nix Op After Facebook Fiasco

By Nathan Hodge March 3, 2010 | 3:22 pm



A few years ago, I received an e-mail from a military public-affairs officer, subject heading: “FW: Shirts only women would wear … in public!” The luckless PAO, using a Hotmail address created for the Georgia Train and Equip Program, had accidentally forwarded some Daytona spring break pictures to all the reporters on the distribution list. Two minutes later, I got another email, also cc’d to everyone on the list, from their superior: “GTEP PAO, contact me IMMEDIATELY.”

Instantaneous electronic communication can be a dangerous thing, and the U.S. military is currently wrestling with new rules to allow troops more access to social networking sites. But balancing the openness of Web 2.0 with the need for operational security is not a problem exclusive to the U.S. armed forces.

In Israel, the military had to call off an entire operation after a trooper posted the time and place of an upcoming raid in the West Bank on his Facebook page. D’oh! According to Associated Press, the soldier boasted that his unit was planning on “cleaning up” the village.

It’s the kind of scenario that keeps military planners up at night: A meticulously planned operation goes dangerously awry because some dolt couldn’t resist telling every one of their Facebook friends or Twitter peeps about it. In this case, the Israelis moved swiftly to respond.

“Fellow soldiers reported the leak to military authorities, who called off the raid fearing that the information may have reached hostile groups,” the AP noted. “The soldier was court-martialed and sentenced to 10 days in prison.”

It’s doubly interesting to read about this case, because the Israeli military has worked very hard to use social networking as an information warfare tool. During Operation Cast Lead in late 2008 and early 2009, the the Israeli military started its own YouTube channel to distribute footage of precision airstrikes; Israeli diplomats even hosted a press conference on Twitter.

[PHOTO: IDF]

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[buglerbilly]

Despite New Policy, Pentagon Still Wary of the ‘Tubes

By Nathan Hodge March 5, 2010 | 10:25 am



The Pentagon last week issued a new “open door” policy on social media last week. So how did an Air Force network administrator find out about the change? Not through their chain of command, but by reading about it on Danger Room.

“I found out how the policy changed through Danger Room, not through a DoD website,” the source said. “When I inquired through our chain of command, they hadn’t heard anything about it.”

What’s more, the source added, access to many web tools had become more, not less, restricted since the policy was put in place. “Any other browser other than Internet Explorer has been blocked over past 96 hours,” the source said. “The only Google tools we can access now are Google Reader and Google Voice.”

Part of it may be a top-down management style that creates information bottlenecks. The source said they found out about Pentagon’s recently lifted ban on USB drives through Danger Room, not through official channels: “This is very peculiar, given the position I have and the level of connectivity I have, that this is how I find out it’s official policy.”

Others have written in to complain that they are still being blocked from accessing social media like Facebook and Twitter. “No SNS (Social Networking Services) here yet,” wrote an NCO stationed in Europe. “In fact, USAREUR [U.S. Army Europe] just published a huge list of requirements for subordinate units to satisfy before even considering the request to open the pipes.”

It’s getting to the point, multiple sources tell Danger Room, where unofficial sites — which don’t necessarily reflect official policy — have become a faster way to get information about what’s going on in military communities.

Those are just a few examples of the yawning gap between theory and practice when it comes to the military’s use of Web 2.0. Earlier this week, Janson Communications, a public relations firm that works for government and defense industry clients, released an interesting survey of the military’s use of Facebook pages. (.pdf) Among the study’s findings:

* Most of the military pages — a full 84 percent — had no interaction with their fans at all during the study period.
* Some of the pages studied had no content, or hadn’t been updated for several months (what the study cleverly describes as “zombie” pages).
* Many military Facebook pages were not clearly marked as “official,” meaning they could be easily confused with “clone” pages made to look like official, government-sponsored pages that may have inaccurate information.

Why is that important? It’s not just about morale, or creating a web-savvy image: When something happens like yesterday’s shooting at the Pentagon metro entrance, people need to find out as quickly as possible. They shouldn’t have to wait several hours for a commanding officer to give a briefing, as happened at Fort Hood. Web 2.0 isn’t a cure-all, but if used effectively and correctly, it can solve communications problems and eliminate information bottlenecks.

Photo: U.S. Department of Defense

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[buglerbilly]

The Air Force’s BlackBerry Crackdown

By Nathan Hodge March 25, 2010 | 10:15 am



In the military, a true PowerPoint Ranger goes nowhere without a firmly holstered BlackBerry. But new Air Force regulations are about to make life much more complicated for users of the popular handheld device.

Last week, the Air Force introduced sweeping changes to boost BlackBerry security. Among other things, the service will disable most Bluetooth functionality: The only Bluetooth feature that will continue to work will be the smart card reader cradle, a device that holds the user’s Common Access Card (a Department of Defense smart ID that is used for computer and network security, pictured here).

The new measures also mean users will not be able to receive text messages with attached photos or videos (Translation: If you get that message that says “FW: Daytona spring break pictures,” you won’t be able to retrieve it.) And they will also restrict users from downloading additional apps to their handheld device.

Don’t like the changes? Too bad. Devices will have their software automatically updated: Users will get only have one chance to decline updating their software while syncing, and any subsequent attempts to sync will disable the BlackBerry until it is updated.

It’s part of a larger shift requiring BlackBerry and Windows mobile devices to be Public Key Infrastructure enabled, so they can send and receive secure e-mail messages. The BlackBerry crackdown seems driven by the service’s focus on cyber security: The Air Force has been reluctant to rescind a ban on thumb drives and other removable media, despite a new Pentagon directive that is supposed to encourage access.

“Just as physical security measures at forward and stateside bases are constantly being improved to meet current threats, so also are cyber protection measures taken to protect DoD [Department of Defense] information,” said Maj. Gen. Richard Webber, 24th Air Force commander, in a recent Air Force news item.

But one Air Force IT professional tells Danger Room the strict new measures may be costly and difficult to implement. “Either way, we (base comm squadrons) are essentially on our own since our centralization efforts have not sent the right people to the right places,” the source said. “Customer service is absent at the higher levels of support.”

[PHOTO: U.S. Department of Defense]

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[Riđđu]

Do you others think that the world has changed quite a lot in couple of years? It´s intriguing that militaries are concerned of brand image, impact of Web 2.0, PowerPoint Rangers, Facetube and interaction with fans…

When I was in the military I had so little social life that I didn´t need social communication tools.

[buglerbilly]

Danger Room What’s Next in National Security In About-Face, Marines Embrace Web 2.0

By Nathan Hodge March 30, 2010 | 11:32 am



Last summer, the U.S. Marine Corps took a draconian approach to Web 2.0, issuing a sweeping ban on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and other social media sites from its networks.

In an order issued yesterday, the service changed course, issuing guidelines to encourage “responsible and effective use” of social networking technology. “The Marine Corps embraces and strives to leverage the advances of internet-based capabilities,” the directive states. “Effective immediately, internet-based capabilities will be made available to all MCEN [Marine Corps Enterprise Network] users.”

http://www.marines.mil/news/messages/Pages/MARADMIN181-10.aspx

In addition to opening up YouTube and Google tools, it encourages Marine organizations to create a better online presence. Marine recruiters already use Facebook; Marine Corps public affairs uses Twitter. This new guidance gives the green light for other units to use the same tools.

It’s a remarkable about-face. A Marine Corps order last summer described such sites as “a proven haven for malicious actors and content.” And it warned that adversaries were using SNS [social network sites] as an “attack and exploitation window” that could be used to compromise operations and communications security.

Late last month, the Pentagon issued new rules creating anew new “open door” policy that was supposed to encourage the services to loosen up restrictions on social media. But as we subsequently reported, that policy was sometimes slow to filter down, and many installations and commands kept various forms of a ban in place. In the case of the Marines, Danger Room has confirmed that users can now use tools like Gmail at work, effective today.

Why is this important? Commanders who are still wary of this kind of openness may want to read this fascinating piece in Small Wars Journal by Maj. Kelly Webster, recently chief of plans and regimental executive officer for the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division. During Haiti relief operations, Webster writes, using unclassified communications was essential to information-sharing:

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are fought on classified information systems. While an operational necessity for these conflicts, most disaster relief partners, to include a majority of the US Embassy staff, can neither see nor access classified material. During the initial days of the relief operation, the ability to pass timely and accurate information was arguably as important as the availability of food and water. In the initial weeks of Operation UNIFIED RESPONSE, Blackberry text messages became the primary means of communication, chiefly because they were the simplest and most reliable means of corresponding with the host of US Government agencies, United Nations offices, and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) coordinating the relief efforts.

http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/journal/docs-temp/401-webster.pdf

That’s not to say that the military needs to part with a strict approach to operational security. But if stability ops and humanitarian relief missions are going to be part of the military’s portfolio, having more access, not less, to Web 2.0 is key.

Photo: USMC