Following the report that Russia has banned its troops from carrying certain electronic devices while on operations (see “Don’t phone home Ivan” – February 26), proof comes that this vulnerability cuts both ways.
A research group at NATO’s Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence (SCCE) recently targeted NATO troops involved in a particular military exercise. By the end of the operation, the SCCE had managed to identify more than one hundred individual soldiers, found the locations of several battalions, tracked troop movements and even compelled certain troops to indulge in “undesirable behaviour” such as leaving their posts. And all of this by simple manipulation of social media data.
See Bruce Schneier’s excellent site at: http://www.schneier.com for the full story.