Sensitive information about the location and staffing of military bases and spy outposts around the world has been revealed by a fitness tracking company.
The details were released by Strava Labs in a data visualization map that shows all the activity tracked by users of its app, which allows people to record their exercise and share it with others.
The map, released in November last year, shows every single activity ever uploaded to Strava — more than 3 trillion individual GPS data points, the firm said.
Photo: CNA
The app can be used on various devices, including smartphones and fitness trackers such as Fitbit, to see popular running routes in major cities, or spot individuals in more remote areas who have unusual exercise patterns.
However, over the weekend military analysts noticed that the map is also detailed enough that it potentially gives away extremely sensitive information about a subset of Strava users: military personnel on active service.
Nathan Ruser, an analyst with the Institute for United Conflict Analysts, first noted the lapse.
The heatmap “looks very pretty,” he wrote, but is “not amazing for Op-Sec” — short for operational security. “US Bases are clearly identifiable and mappable.”
“If soldiers use the app like normal people do, by turning it on tracking when they go to do exercise, it could be especially dangerous,” Ruser added, highlighting one particular track that “looks like it logs a regular jogging route.”
“In Syria, known coalition [ie US] bases light up the night,” analyst Tobias Schneider wrote. “Some light markers over known Russian positions, no notable coloring for Iranian bases.”
“A lot of people are going to have to sit thru lectures come Monday morning,” Schneider wrote, referring to soldiers likely to be taken to task for inadvertently revealing sensitive information while trying to keep in shape.
Strava yesterday responded to claims that it accidentally revealed sensitive military positions by arguing that the information was already made public by the users who uploaded it.
“We take the safety of our community seriously and are committed to working with military and government officials to address sensitive areas that might appear,” it added.
However, militaries around the world said they are contemplating banning fitness trackers to prevent future breaches.
In Taipei, Ministry of National Defense spokesman Major General Chen Chung-chi (陳中吉) dismissed concerns that the app could potentially expose the location of the nation’s missile command center, but promised to improve personnel security.
A report in The Daily Beast over the weekend said that “it seems, for example, that there are some very avid users of this application in Taiwan,” adding that “a number of avid Strava users who work there, casually jog right by the parking lot where the missile launchers are kept.”
“In such instances, no sensitive information can be leaked,” Chen told a news conference when asked about the report.
Asked whether the app could reveal the missile command center, Chen said that many of the individuals identified are not in the military and therefore not party to any information leak.
All military personnel serving on bases in Taiwan are required to download a program that locks out cameras, hotspot sharing, GPS and Bluetooth functions on their devices, he said.
The US Department of Defense said it was “reviewing” the situation.
“Recent data releases emphasize the need for situational awareness when members of the military share personal information,” Pentagon spokeswoman Major Audricia Harris told reporters.
The Pentagon “recommends limiting public profiles on the Internet, including personal social media accounts,” she said.
Australia Defence Association spokesman Neil James said the military was considering action to prevent further security breaches.
Any devices that record or transmit should be left at home on deployments, the Australian Associated Press quoted him as saying.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
COMPLIANCE: The SEF has helped more than 3,900 Chinese verify documents, indicating that most of those affected are willing to cooperate, the MAC said More than 3,100 spouses from China have submitted proof of renunciation of their Chinese household registration, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The National Immigration Agency has since April issued notices to spouses to submit proof that they had renounced their Chinese household registration on or before June 30 or their Taiwanese household registration would be revoked. People having difficulties obtaining such a document can request an extension of the deadline or submit a written affidavit in lieu of it. The council said it would hold a briefing at 2:30pm on Friday at the immigration agency’s Taichung office in cooperation with the
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
RSS