By Chinasaokwu Helen okoro
Russian authorities have urged people in the border regions to stop using dating apps and limit their use of social media to prevent Ukrainian forces from gathering intelligence as it presses on with its incursion into the Kursk region.
Russia’s interior ministry issued the plea on Tuesday, telling residents of Bryansk, Kursk, and Belgorod regions as well as military and police personnel stationed in the area territories to refrain from using “online dating services” and be mindful of streaming videos from sensitive locations.
“The enemy actively uses such resources for information gathering,” the ministry said in a post on its official Telegram channel.
As Ukrainian troops continued their advances through Russian territory, the ministry issued a long list of recommendations, advising people not to open any hyperlinks in messages received from strangers and not to stream videos from roads where military vehicles were present.
Authorities also warned citizens that Ukrainian forces were connecting to “unprotected CCTV cameras remotely, viewing everything – from private yards to roads and highways of strategic importance.”
Troops and police officers were advised to remove all geo-tagging on their social media, as “the enemy monitors social networks in real time by these tags and reveals the actual location of military and security forces.”
Ukriane’s offensive into the Kursk region has left Russia struggling to shore up its own territory. On Tuesday, Ukrainian military chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said Ukrainian troops had advanced up to 35 kilometers (21.7 miles) through Russian defenses since the start of their surprise assault last week, capturing 93 settlements.
More than 121,000 Kursk residents have been evacuated, Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations wrote on Telegram Monday.
Ukraine’s operations also targeted the Bryansk and Belgorod regions.
Apps reveal sensitive information
The security risk stemming from social media use is not hypothetical — there is a history of soldiers inadvertently revealing sensitive information by using their phones in conflict zones.
The United States and its “Five Eyes” intelligence allies – Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom – warned last year that Russian military hackers had been targeting Ukrainian soldiers’ mobile devices in a bid to steal battlefield information.
And when a high-profile Russian submarine commander was shot dead while jogging in 2023, Russian media reported he may have been targeted by an assailant tracking him on Strava, a popular running app.
The officer, Stanislav Rzhitsky, was using a public profile under his own name to track his running and cycling routes. He was killed while out jogging on one of his regular circuits.
And after a Ukrainian strike that killed nearly 100 Russian troops in the occupied Ukrainian city of Makiivka on New Year’s Day last year, Russia’s defense ministry said the “main cause” of the strike was the widespread use of cell phones by Russian soldiers, although some officials questioned that assessment.
Last month, Russian state media TASS reported that the country’s lower house of parliament proposed punishing Russian soldiers caught using smartphones while fighting in Ukraine.
The lawmakers suggested that carrying internet-connected cell phones that can help identify Russian troops or the location of forces should be classified as a “gross disciplinary offense” and be punishable by up to 10 days’ imprisonment. Multiple offenses could lead to up to 15 days in prison.
The law would also prohibit the use of other electronic devices meant for “household purposes” that allow for video and audio recording and the transmission of geolocation data.
It’s not just Russia and Ukraine though. The US Department of Defense banned military personnel from using geolocation features in 2018 after it emerged that Strava and other fitness tracking apps could pose security risks for forces around the world.
The app created an interactive heat map that displayed 1 billion activity data points made public by users, inadvertently revealing the locations of US bases in countries around the world.
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