Nathan Ruser did not expect this type of reaction when he posted on Twitter over the weekend that a fitness app had revealed the locations of military sites in Syria and elsewhere.
Strava released their global heatmap. 13 trillion GPS points from their users (turning off data sharing is an option). https://t.co/hA6jcxfBQI … It looks very pretty, but not amazing for Op-Sec. US Bases are clearly identifiable and mappable pic.twitter.com/rBgGnOzasq
— Nathan Ruser (@Nrg8000) January 27, 2018
But the news alarmed security experts, who said hostile entities could gather valuable intelligence from the Strava app’s global “heat map,” including the locations of secret bases and the movement of military personnel. The situation got so extreme that the Pentagon said it was reviewing it.
“Whoever thought that operational security could be wrecked by a Fitbit?” Mr. Ruser, 20, told The New York Times during an interview from Thailand, where he is spending part of the Australian summer break. Ruser studies international security at Australian National University in Canberra. He does not personally use Strava, but is an avid follower of the conflict in Syria, and he uses maps to put news stories in context. Before posting his findings on Twitter, he discussed them in a private Twitter chat.
“A lot of geo-location, a lot of reflection can be derived from what’s out there in open-source,” said John Blaxland, a professor of international security and intelligence studies at Australian National University who taught Mr. Ruser last year, to The Times. “Nathan’s clearly taken it to heart and gone out on his own.” Blaxland added Ruser did very well in his class.
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