News 12 at 11 o'clock, March 10, 2010

FORT GORDON, Ga. – Facebook is a way to stay in touch with friends and family as well as find people with similar interests. But beware of what you are posting on the site because big brother is watching, especially for terrorist threats on all of the social networking sites.

The Army is again warning soldiers to be careful when making friends on Facebook. Sometimes that pro-U.S. military page you are about to join may not be pro-American after all. News 12 spoke with Department of Army Public Affairs spokesmen about the necessity to continue to remind soldiers of the cyberspace dangers.

Those who wear the uniform and who use social media sites at the same time are guided by operations security measures and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Army officials say members of the U.S. military can be a target and that's why it is not wise to carelessly post anything to Facebook pages. While they use Facebook, Myspace and Twitter to stay connected with loved ones when they are overseas, mobilized or deployed on the battlefield, service members enjoy a little piece of home through technology. However, that technology can also be dangerous.

"You never know who knows more than you do -- they can hack anything, credit card numbers, you just never know,” says Pvt. Jeff Carnes.

As a Fort Gordon soldier, Pvt. Carnes works with army satellites and understands what can happen when classified or critical information ends up in the wrong hands.

"You just never know, you never know who's looking especially with everything we do here based off of technology,” adds Carnes.

The Army is pushing soldiers to be cautious when posting personal information, pictures and even a personal opinion on social sites.

If you don't need to put it on there, it's usually a good idea not to,” adds Carnes.

Still, Carnes says some soldiers just don't get it.

"Just today, I found another soldier's profile and I looked at it and thought to myself, he's posting too much,” says Carnes. “You never know who's looking at your page.”

One group that could possibly be looking at a soldier’s Facebook page is a terrorist organization. There are also sites pretending to be patriotic, but in fact only want to get information.

One Facebook page, named “Let’s get 1,000,0000 supporters of the military” caught the attention and concern of top Army leaders.

According to an Army spokesman, an investigation found it to be just a poorly managed page where some fans had posted negative information and videos. A trained Army Public Affairs Officer ended up joining the group and now helps to manage the page. The Department of Army Public Affairs spokesman also says the most important considerations soldiers should keep in mind are common sense and educating yourself. Private Carnes agrees.

"I try not to post anything that's got pictures or anything that has to do with the military," he says. “The people that are close to me know that I am in the Army and so that is good enough.”

Army officials say for the most part, they have not seen extreme violations on the Army’s Facebook page. The Department of Defense recently released its guidance on the use of social media and the Army is now working on its own version.

For more information go to:
http://www.defense.gov/home/features/2009/0709_socialmedia/.