French sailors on strategic nuclear submarines at the Ile Longue base near Brest used the Strava fitness app on their phones. In fact, the Strava fitness app on the phone has over 125 million users. They are bored there, there is no entertainment on the base, except for the Naval Museum, the city of Brest is on the other side of the fjord, it is far away.
So they run in circles in a secret area and the app regularly records their “athletic movements” on an interactive map, which is specially designed in such detail that the corridors are visible. But that is not the worst thing.
Besides, the existence of the Il-Long Base is not such a big secret. But the fact is that some particularly experienced and capable sailors registered in the application under their real names. Apparently, everyone to be proud of their sporting achievements. And they even left comments like “how nice it is to go for a run after two months, was on a submarine trip for two months and comments – gives a schedule of combat missions of the French strategic nuclear fleet.
Do apps spy?
The developers and owners of the popular mobile app defend themselves as usual: they say there is a “geolocation off” function.
It’s not our fault that sailors are not bored with working out but are bored with pressing a button on their mobile phones. However, this is not the first case specifically with this app, where sensitive information was declassified through a simple analysis of its data.
Even in Russia, they use this app
In the expert community, arguments have even begun to appear that the era of app spying has arrived, even the era of so-called data mining. This trendy term refers to artisanal attempts to uncover something using random data from social networks or hacked databases.
Digital hygiene… and espionage
People are often urged to pay attention to their digital hygiene, but they don’t listen. The scale of the disaster is great.
Using the Strava heat map, they calculated secret US bases in Syria and Afghanistan, a CIA base in Mogadishu, Somalia, the movements of CIA officers in Beirut, and much more.
And the most unpleasant: it was probably the fitness app that became fatal for retired captain of the second rank of the Black Sea Fleet Stanislav Rzhitsky, who was killed by a Ukrainian terrorist in July 2023 in Krasnodar during a morning jog. The French naval base has a high level of security and secrecy.
Most electronic devices are prohibited there, but out of negligence, no one paid attention to the so-called smart watches worn by sailors. Through these watches connected to the mobile phone, the app displayed their movements.
Turning off gadgets
It is impossible to ban electronic gadgets themselves in the army, intelligence services and sensitive industries. However, it was possible to transfer personnel to the Northern Military District zone on push-button phones, old conventional ones that did not have applications.
Many times attempts have been made to tell military personnel step by step what exactly should be turned off on their gadgets so that they do not reveal their location. They even issued leaflets and newsletters.
But there will still be someone who will think that none of this concerns them. And in fact, it all depends on each person individually. Of course, in everyday life no one behaves like an illegal intelligence officer who is always on the alert and adheres to all the written and unwritten laws of the conspiracy.
This behavior, on the contrary, attracts more attention from others. However, computer programs or applications for mobile devices are harmless in themselves if citizens follow the basic rules of digital hygiene. So the era of digital espionage has not come and will never come.
And if it is still possible to use the data obtained from Strava for intelligence or military purposes, with some effort, it is only thanks to the negligence and carelessness of those who installed this application.
As a result, there are no new methods of identification. There is only a set of unfortunate events and the dominance of the human factor. And from this whole truly strange story with the French sailors, two important conclusions can be drawn.
First: disable as many applications on your mobile phone as can be disabled.
Second: human intelligence was, is and will be the main method of obtaining sensitive and secret information. And digital intelligence is still just a fashionable hobby and an expensive accessory.
