Troops' phones gave away location data to foreign adversaries

Adversaries have exploited commercial geolocation data associated with US troops to target or surveil personnel in the Middle East. The Pentagon acknowledges that USCENTCOM received multiple threat reports about this exploitation. Lawmakers sent a letter to the DoD CIO demanding changes to smartphone security posture across military branches. DoD responses indicate that information purchased from commercial data brokers was used to target troops. The data brokers obtained location information from smartphone advertising profiles, which are accessible through legitimate commercial data purchasing channels. US military personnel can use personal devices in operational areas, and there is no policy requiring servicemembers to disable location-related advertising or tracking features.

"“USCENTCOM [US Central Command] has received multiple threat reports concerning adversary exploitation of commercial location data to target or surveil US personnel in theater,” the DoD's responses from April indicate."

"“Included in the letter is what lawmakers describe as the first public confirmation that commercial location data has been used to target or surveil American troops in active war zones.”"

"“As for how exactly data brokers got access to the data that allowed adversaries to locate troops and their movements, they got it from the same sources as anyone else buying data from a commercial broker: Smartphone advertising profiles.”"

"“According to the DoD responses included in Wyden's letter, not only are US military personnel allowed to use personal devices within operational areas, there's no actual policy that requires servicemembers to”"

Read at theregister