The US Air Force has updated the old World War II slogan, 'Loose lips sink ships,' for the social media age.

It has created a new poster proclaiming 'loose tweets destroy fleets' and warned soldiers not to leak information about their missions online.

Military commanders are concerned about social media-savvy groups such as ISIS gleaning details about US service members and even upcoming missions.

The US Air Force has updated the old World War II slogan, 'Loose lips sink ships,' for the social media age, proclaiming 'loose tweets destroy fleets' in a campaign to stop airmen revealing too much online.

'Keeping quiet about operational information is vital to ensure military members stay safe on a daily basis,' commanders said in the update.

'Social media can be a useful tool to stay connected to friends, family, and quick entertainment.

'However, there is sometimes a fine line between letting your friends see what you're up to and providing an adversary critical information about your connection to the military and its mission.'

In March, a group purportedly connected to ISIS posted an online 'hit list' of soldiers it said were helping with a US airstrike campaign against ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

The list included the names and home addresses of 100 service members, as well as photos of those members.

Defense officials said at the time that the information hadn't been posted as the result of a hack or data breach; rather, it had been compiled from publicly available information the service members had posted on social media networks.

'As social media keeps evolving and there's more and more avenues to let your friends and family know what you are up to, those same avenues can be used by ISIS sympathizers, 'lone wolves,' to track down and hurt our military members outside the safety of the base,' said Capt. Jonathan McDonald, AFCENT Force Protection chief.

'So not only is it important to not post vital mission related information, but it's also important to not post detailed personal information to keep yourself and your loved ones safe.

'It's vital to check your security settings in your social media accounts to make sure that just your friends are able to see what you post and remember to be smart about what you post and share,' McDonald added.

Operations Security is the process of keeping sensitive information away from the enemy.

Information is identified and controlled by various security measures to minimize violations.

'Without OPSEC, our adversaries would be able to freely and easily gather information of our activities and operations; putting missions, resources and members at risk, said Master Sgt. Aaron Miller, AFCENT Information security program manager.

LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS The most famous poster (right) that helped popularize the phrase was created for the Seagram Distillers Corporation by the designer Seymour R. Goff (also known by the pseudonym 'Ess-ar-gee' or Essargee). This type of poster was part of a general campaign of American propaganda during World War II to advise servicemen and other citizens to avoid careless talk concerning secure information that might be of use to the enemy. The British equivalent used variations on the phrase 'Keep mum.' In neutral Sweden the State Information Board promoted the wordplay 'en svensk tiger' (the Swedish word 'tiger' means both 'tiger' and 'keeping silent'). Germany used 'Schäm Dich, Schwätzer!' (which translates as 'Shame on you, blabbermouth!'). US Soldiers were also issued with guidelines proclaiming: 'If violation of protective measures is serious within written communications it is disastrous in conversations. 'Protect your conversation as you do your letters, and be even more careful. A harmful letter can be nullified by censorship; loose talk is direct delivery to the enemy. 'If you come home during war your lips must remain sealed and your written hand must be guided by self-imposed censorship. 'This takes guts. Have you got them or do you want your buddies and your country to pay the price for your showing off. You've faced the battle front; its little enough to ask you to face this 'home front.'' Advertisement

'Ultimately this could impact a campaign or mission and be detrimental to national strategic and foreign policies.'

With OPSEC violation consequences so high, it's important to ensure OPSEC procedures are followed through.

'The best way to keep OPSEC is to look over the Critical Information List and be sure to protect the information on that list and destroy it accordingly,' said Senior Airman Anthony Bolton, 609th Air Operations Center OPSEC manager.