Australian defense analysts are briefing their troops to be careful on Facebook because the Taliban is using pictures of cute girls to lure Ausies, and Coalition Forces, into giving up secrets.
A Defence Analysis called "Review of Social Media And Defense," which is based almost solely on a patchwork of American Defense Department information, had this to say:
Fake profiles – media personnel and enemies create fake profiles
to gather information. For example, the Taliban have used pictures
of attractive women as the front of their Facebook profiles and have
befriended soldiers.
Kind of interesting to lump "media personnel" in there along with enemies. The analysis said troops have an "overt reliance" on privacy settings, and often don't screen people looking to "make friends" online. Taliban often pose as high school friends or "attractive women," gaining a "back door" into profiles that would otherwise be protected.
Officials also warn about photos:
In the survey carried out for this review, the cadets mostly focused on the following points to
protect against risks:
• No identifiable photos of bad behavior.
• Pictures in uniform only if behaving appropriately.
• No photos with guns, Rambo-style.
• No negative references to ADFA or Defence.
So the Defence force doesn't mind bad behaviour, as long as it's not identifiable on Facebook? Rambo-style photography?
Photos can be a problem though, especially due to smart phones and "geotagging" - a process which embeds location information inside the photo. A security expert told The Herald Sun, an Australian online publication, that geo-tag information "can be data-mined and sold to anybody."
Recent growth in infrastructure in Afghanistan, such as the use of WiFi, has provided a new dimension for the Taliban to conduct warfare. In a lot of ways, the Coalition Forces have been behind the Taliban. Until recently, many units advised their troops to just stay off of social media.
Now, militaries across the globe have accepted social media, and include it in their regular readiness briefs.
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