US Navy suddenly removes leadership profiles from public websites amid escalating Iran tensions

United States (U.S.) Navy has instructed the command to remove the leadership’s photos and introduction from the public-facing website in a bid to enhance security of the sailors and their families.

This comes amid renewed and escalating tensions between the U.S. and Islamic Republic of Iran. Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz, whereas the U.S. says the key oil trade route is open for lawful transit and the U.S. Navy is providing security to the ships against Iranian attacks.

In an administrative message, the American sea forces said: “Adversaries increasingly aggregate publicly available data to track, profile and target our personnel,” adding, “By creating an unnecessary spotlight and surge of online interest, routine command triad biographies inadvertently expose our people to elevated risk.”

The Navy has barred commands led by vice admirals and lower ranking officials (grade 09 and below) from sharing their information on public websites, with their official biographies also to be removed from the navy's public site.

The commands led by admirals (grade 10) have been allowed to keep their profile on public sites. The administrative message does not explain why commands led by O-10 admirals are exempt from the new policy

The leadership who biographies are set to be removed, include:

• Commanding officers,
• Executive officers,
• Chief of staff,
• Chief staff officers,
• Deputies,
• Command master chief or equivalent.

Navy’s internal CAC-enabled repositories, command intranets, and other non-public systems have been allowed to host biographies and portraits for official use.