Russian authorities have called on people in border regions to stop using dating apps and limit their use of social media to prevent intelligence gathering by Ukrainian troops as they continue their advance into the Kursk region.
The Russian Interior Ministry issued the appeal on Tuesday, calling on residents of Bryansk, Kursk and Belgorod oblasts, as well as military and police personnel stationed in the region, to refrain from using “online dating services” and streaming videos from sensitive locations.
“The enemy is actively using such resources to gather intelligence,” the ministry said in a post on its official Telegram channel.
As Ukrainian troops continue their advance into Russian territory, the ministry issued a long list of recommendations, including advising citizens not to open hyperlinks in messages from strangers and not to stream videos of roads occupied by military vehicles.
Apps reveal sensitive information
Officials also warned the public that Ukrainian forces are remotely accessing “unsecured surveillance cameras” and monitoring everything from private gardens to strategically important streets and highways.
Soldiers and police officers have been ordered to remove all geotags from social media because “enemies can use these tags to monitor social networks in real time and reveal the actual locations of military and security forces.”
Ukrainian aggression in the Kursk region is creating problems for Russia in defending its own territory. On Tuesday, Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander Oleksandr Shirushkiy said that since the start of the surprise offensive last week, Ukrainian forces have advanced up to 35 kilometers (22 miles) through Russian defense lines and seized 93 settlements.
More than 121,000 residents of Kursk have been evacuated, the Russian Emergencies Ministry wrote on Telegram on Monday.
The Ukrainian operation also targeted the Bryansk and Belgorod oblasts.
Apps leaking classified information
The security risks posed by the use of social media are not hypothetical. There have already been cases of soldiers in conflict zones accidentally leaking classified information using their mobile phones.
The United States and its Five Eyes intelligence allies Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Britain warned last year that Russian military hackers were targeting Ukrainian soldiers’ mobile devices to steal information from the battlefield.
And when a senior Russian submarine commander was shot and killed while jogging in 2023, Russian media reported he may have been targeted by attackers who had been tracking him on the popular running app Strava.
Police officer Stanislav Ruzhitsky used a public profile under his own name to track his running and cycling routes. He was killed while out jogging regularly.
And after the Ukrainian attack on the occupied Ukrainian town of Makiivka on New Year’s Day last year that killed nearly 100 Russian soldiers, the Russian Defense Ministry said the “main cause” of the attack was the widespread use of mobile phones by Russian soldiers. Some officials questioned that assessment.
Last month, Russian state media TASS reported that the country’s lower house of parliament proposed to punish Russian soldiers caught using smartphones during fighting in Ukraine.
The lawmakers proposed that possession of an internet-enabled mobile phone that could help identify Russian troops or locate them should be classified as a “serious disciplinary violation” and punishable by up to 10 days in prison. Multiple violations could result in a prison sentence of up to 15 days.
The law would also ban the “domestic” use of other electronic devices that allow for video and audio recording or the transmission of location data.
But it’s not just Russia and Ukraine: The US Department of Defense banned military personnel from using the geolocation feature in 2018 after it emerged that Strava and other fitness tracking apps could pose security risks to troops around the world.
The app created an interactive heatmap displaying 1 billion activity data points published by users, accidentally revealing the locations of US military bases around the world.
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