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Russian troops are proving that cell phones in war zones are a very bad idea:
It’s been a nightmare scenario for U.S. commanders for years: An amphibious readiness group sails stealthily towards its objective, one reckless Marine or sailor goes topside and uses a personal cell phone to check Facebook, revealing the position of the assault ship. The Chinese or Russians quickly detect the cell phone signal in the middle of the ocean and realize they can’t miss. The enemy fires its anti-ship ballistic or cruise missiles at Pfc./Seaman Schmuckatelli as he posts a meme and suddenly the entire ship along with thousands of sailors and Marines are lying on the ocean floor.
To some, this type of scenario may seem as hyperbolic as warnings that wearing white socks in combat could give away your location to the enemy, but Russian troops in Ukraine have shown the perils of using cell phones in modern-day warzones.
The Ukrainians claim to have killed 12 general Russian officers since late February, in part because the Russians have resorted to using cell phones when their communications systems break down.
“It is not hard to geo-locate someone on a phone talking in the clear,” retired Army Gen. Ben Hodges, former commander of U.S. Army Europe, told the New York Times.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 16 2022, @12:30PM (4 children)
You know, these troops are taking over Ukrainian areas and these areas are run by Ukrainian telecoms. And then they are roaming with their phones?? It's quite easy to connect the dots here.
It wasn't long ago that the FitBits and others were outing Americans on their secret bases. This is not a "Russian fail", more of a general army fail in an interconnected world. Since every cellphone that is on can be located to a few dozen meters ..... do I need to continue? This is not super-duper-high-tech-James-bond tech here.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/28/fitness-tracking-app-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases [theguardian.com]
Why? They could just mimic 1000s of fake sims. And maybe they do, but then to verify these things, you need to do actual reconnaissance. Keep in mind that we are subject to Ukrainian propaganda too -- we don't see any failures on Ukrainian side, only the "laughable Russians" -- that in itself is propaganda.
Anyway, there is the reality on the ground. Ukrainians are not welcoming Russian forces and not giving up their nation. For the rest, who knows.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 16 2022, @02:00PM (1 child)
A real military has other methods of communication other than stealing cell phones and hoping that nobody is listening in.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Monday May 16 2022, @05:18PM
Do you even try to read the source material or do you make all your statements based on a few lines of summary?
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday May 16 2022, @08:46PM
Speaking of misdirection attacks, if I was a local farmer pissed off enough to tell someone what I saw, I'd ask for a favor like asking for one of the disinformation services to do their usual job of propaganda by releasing a "news story" about how nobody saw nutthin and all those invaders got drilled by playing farmville on their phones. Yup it sure wasn't a pissed off local or a humint spy or a local hired for menial labor, yup it was farmville that killed all those generals... Everyone trusts their propaganda sources, right? Those guys would never lie to us.
(Score: 2) by number11 on Tuesday May 17 2022, @03:50AM
Sure is. And phone systems are built with the ability for the local authorities to easily tap. People may remember that in 2005, the Greek government discovered that the local phone system (IIRC made by Ericsson) had had the taps turned on by parties unknown, and was tapping a selection of VIPs (including the PM).
I'm sure the Russians know how to do that too, but it only works when you have access (direct or hacked) to the telco's system. So probably only in the areas where they have complete control, and don't have to spend their time dodging incoming. Fortunately, the Russian military comm system seems to be garbage, even generals seem to use cheap Chinese comm gear so that they have something that at least works. And Russ soldiers are as addicted to their cells as Americans.