On Tuesday, Russia’s Interior Ministry issued this call, telling residents of the Bryansk, Kursk and Belgorod regions, as well as military and police personnel stationed in the areas, not to use “online dating apps” and to beware of video broadcasts from vulnerable locations.
“The enemy is actively using such resources to collect information,” the ministry said in a statement on its official Telegram channel.
As Ukrainian troops continue to advance through Russian territory, the ministry issued a long list of recommendations, advising people not to open any hyperlinks in messages received from strangers and not to send videos of roads containing military equipment.
Authorities also warned citizens that Ukrainian forces are remotely connecting to “unsecured CCTV cameras and monitoring everything from private yards to strategically important roads and highways.”
Soldiers and police officers have been advised to remove all geotags from their social networks because “the enemy monitors social networks in real-time and reveals the true location of military and security forces.”
Due to the Ukrainian attack on the Kursk region, Russia is having a hard time consolidating its territory. On Tuesday, Ukrainian military commander Oleksandr Syrsky said that since the start of the surprise offensive last week, Ukrainian troops had advanced up to 35 kilometers through Russian defensive fortifications and captured 93 settlements.
More than 121 thousand Residents of the Kursk region have been evacuated, the Russian Emergencies Ministry wrote in a telegram on Monday.
Ukrainian operations were also directed at the Bryansk and Belgorod regions.
Apps reveal sensitive information
The security risks posed by the use of social media are not hypothetical – there have been cases of soldiers accidentally revealing classified information while using their phones in conflict zones.
The United States and its Five Eyes intelligence allies – Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom – warned last year that Russian military hackers were targeting the mobile devices of Ukrainian soldiers to steal battlefield information.
And when in 2023 after a high-ranking Russian submarine commander was shot while jogging, Russian media reported that he may have been targeted by a gunman who followed him on the popular running app Strava.
Officer Stanislavas Ržickis used a public profile under his own name to track his running and cycling routes. He was killed while jogging on one of his regular routes.
And after a Ukrainian strike that killed nearly 100 Russian soldiers in the occupied Ukrainian town of Makiivka on New Year’s Day last year, the Russian Defense Ministry said the “main reason” for the strike was the widespread use of cellphones by Russian troops, although some officials questioned that assessment. .
Last month, Russian state media TASS reported that the country’s lower house of parliament proposed punishing Russian soldiers caught using smartphones while fighting in Ukraine.
Lawmakers proposed that carrying internet-connected cellphones that could help identify Russian soldiers or the location of forces should be classified as a “gross disciplinary offense” and punishable by up to 10 days in jail. Multiple violations could result in up to 15 days in jail.
The law would also prohibit the use of other “household” electronic devices that can make video and audio recordings and transmit geolocation data.
However, this is not only happening in Russia and Ukraine. US Department of Defense 2018 banned the use of geolocation features by the military after it became clear that Strava and other sports tracking apps could endanger the security of forces around the world.
The app created an interactive heat map that displayed 1 billion activity data points made public by users, thus inadvertently revealing the locations of US bases located in various countries around the world.
Prepared by CNN.
2024-08-23 14:04:43