What is the first step of the OPSEC Process?

• A. Identify Critical Information
• B. Analyze Threats
• C. Analyze Vulnerabilities
• D. Assessment of Risks

Answer: (A)

Identifying what information is critical is the first move because it defines what you’re trying to protect. OPSEC starts by naming the specific data, plans, or capabilities whose disclosure would harm operations or objectives. Once you know what counts as critical, you can properly focus your later analyses on those items rather than wasted efforts on unimportant details.

After you’ve pinpointed the critical information, you examine who might threaten it, how it could be exposed, and what the overall risk is by weighing likelihood against impact. For example, if a mission timeline is identified as critical, you then consider potential adversaries, the channels they could use to learn it, and where weaknesses in protection could exist, so you can prioritize countermeasures.

The other steps—analyzing threats, analyzing vulnerabilities, and assessing risks—make sense only in the context of knowing what information is critical, because they’re all directed at protecting those identified items.