Dutch warship compromised with $5 tracker and a postcard
Cheap tech just keeps on exposing NATO warships. In the latest example, a journalist was able to send a Bluetooth tracker to a Dutch frigate.
Just Vervaart, working for regional broadcaster Omroep Gelderland, hid the $5 Bluetooth tracker inside an envelope with a postcard via the military postal service.
The reporter followed official instructions designed to make it easier for friends and family to send mail to their loved ones onboard the HNLMS Evertsen.
The Dutch air-defense frigate has been supporting the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle since March, to help protect Cyprus and other allies and secure maritime traffic imperilled by the escalating crisis in the Middle East.
Omroep Gelderland has recently been investigating how the nation’s Ministry of Defense is adapting to the world’s rapidly changing digital environment, and it appears to have found a security gap in the Navy's mailing system.
Although officials check posts with an X-ray machine to look for banned and dangerous items, they do not open items or appear to scan envelopes, and the tracker sailed through without being detected or damaged.
Omroep Gelderland said that it had spotted that online videos showed envelopes were not being scanned, which inspired the reporter to pack a $5 Bluetooth tracker in the postcard.
The broadcaster was able to track the ship’s journey in real time for about a day, watching it sail from Heraklion, Crete, before it turned towards Cyprus.
While it only showed the location of that one vessel, knowing that it was part of a carrier strike group sailing in the Mediterranean could potentially put the entire fleet at risk.
In response to the incident, the Dutch MoD told Omroep Gelderland that “Checks on military post would be stepped up.”
Following the compromise, sending greeting cards with batteries has also been banned.
Exposed: Strava tracking on the Charles de Gaulle
There has been a rise in cases of operational security (OPSEC) flaws affecting military vessels.
At about the same time and place, the French newspaper Le Monde also tracked Charles de Gaulle.
The tracking was done using data from the smartphone fitness tracker Strava, which was being used by a sailor either on board the carrier or on a nearby escort frigate like the Evertsen.
As part of its “StravaLeaks” investigation last month, Le Monde located more than 18,000 French military personnel with a fitness app installed on their phones.
For over two years, reporters were able to map more than 1,000 locations per day, including at bases in Iraq, Lebanon, and Egypt, exposing their movements and deployments.
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