In combat theatre, operational security is absolutely paramount.

Operational security is paramount because should any sensitive operational information end up being known to adversaries, it could empower the adversary to evade, exploit and/or potentially even compromise operations.

The raison d'etre of operational security is to ensure that potential adversaries are denied any knowledge of operational capabilities or intentions, and it is accomplished by securing, controlling and protecting all sensitive operational details.

Combat operations are invariably a unified command effort involving numerous forces and agencies, and there is a substantial amount of inter-agency communication involved in the planning and execution of all such operations.

Underlying secure commincations are secure IT infrastructures that facilitate secure operations and communications.

At the majority of departments that comprise the United States Department of Defense (U.S. DoD), the underlying IT infrastructures that facilitate secure operations and communications are powered by Microsoft Active Directory.

At these departments, the majority of their primary identities (user accounts) and mutli-factor credentials are stored, managed, integrated with and secured in their secure Active Directory domains, and the various mechanisms that faciliate secure (authenticated, authorized and audited) access and collaboration are provided by Active Directory .

Further, most departmental computers are joined to, managed from and protected by Active Directory and secure access to departmental IT assets (files, apps, portals, email etc.) is also controlled using Active Directory security groups. Finally, all external identity provisioning and access to external systems or private clouds are also Active Directory integrated.

In essence, underlying secure operations and secure communications at and amongst the departments of the U.S. DoD lies one of the most secure, autonomously operable and highly trustworthy foundational technologies - Active Directory.

The ability to operate on a time-tested, autonomously operable foundational technology makes trustworthy operational security i.e. truly secure and confidential communications, possible at and among all departments and in combat theatre.