OPSEC Model and Applications

OPSEC (Operations Security) model was developed during the Vietnam War era as a part of military strategies to protect critical information, analyzing vulnerabilities and threats, assessing risks and applying proper countermeasures. 5 steps OPSEC model have been functional for US Army’s operational security and used by other NATO members as well. When threats have spread widely in 21 st Century OPSEC began to be used and applied in a more general context of security world. Today even in cyber security this model serves practically for protection of critical data and information. In this paper we are going to proceed in two levels: on the one hand we will explain the OPSEC principles, steps and conceptual aspects through the main sources of this field; on the other hand we will discuss applications of the model in real world (military, politics, industry, etc.) via some explanatory examples and its potential usages for securing modern life and societies. Our approach will be based on an interdisciplinary view with references to sociology, security studies and management.