Taliban Pose as Pretty Women on
Facebook to Obtain Military Secrets
A recent review of the Australian military found that its soldiers might be spilling secrets to pretty women they meet online—and that these women may be fake profiles set up by the Taliban. According to ZDNet, The defense report surveyed 1,577 military personnel and found that 58 percent have been given no social media training. In addition to fake profiles set up by the Taliban, the study also warned of media members’ friending of soldiers to find out information. One feature of Facebook that soldiers should be particularly wary of, the study says, is the geo-tagging function, which could automatically reveal the soldier’s location every time he or she posted.The Australian review said: “Many individuals who use social media are extremely trusting. Most did not recognize that people using fake profiles, perhaps masquerading as school friends, could capture information and movements. Few consider the possibilities of data mining and how patterns of behavior can be identified over time.”
This isn’t the first time the military have found themselves in hot water with social media. Earlier this year, soldiers uploaded pictures of Apache gunship helicopters onto Facebook, and the pictures were geo-tagged. As a result, the enemy attacked the location. “The enemy was able to determine the exact location of the helicopters inside the compound and conduct a mortar attack, destroying four of the AH-64 Apaches,” the army said earlier this year.
As social media use becomes ever more prevalent, military groups all over the world will have to do a better job about training their troops to use sites like Facebook responsibly.
Even ordinary users should keep in mind that everything isn’t always as it seems. Fake profiles and fake business pages are prolific on Facebook, and there have been countless victims of romance-themed scams on social networking sites.
This article appears courtesy of our friends at Facecrooks.com.
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