US Soldiers Expose Nuclear Weapons Secrets Via Flashcard Apps

[Nevilledog]

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Bellingcat
@bellingcat
·
May 28, 2021
Replying to @bellingcat and @FoekePostma
Bellingcat sent a non-exhaustive list of 50 flashcards it had found when approaching the US Military for comment in the weeks before publishing this article. All examples appeared to have been taken down before publication

Bellingcat
@bellingcat
Read the full article by @FoekePostma here:

US Soldiers Expose Nuclear Weapons Secrets Via Flashcard Apps - bellingcat
Online study aids used by US soldiers contained detailed information about base security and the location of nuclear devices in Europe.
bellingcat.com
6:34 AM · May 28, 2021

https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2021/05/28/us-soldiers-expose-nuclear-weapons-secrets-via-flashcard-apps/

For US soldiers tasked with the custody of nuclear weapons in Europe, the stakes are high. Security protocols are lengthy, detailed and need to be known by heart. To simplify this process, some service members have been using publicly visible flashcard learning apps — inadvertently revealing a multitude of sensitive security protocols about US nuclear weapons and the bases at which they are stored.

While the presence of US nuclear weapons in Europe has long been detailed by various leaked documents, photos and statements by retired officials, their specific locations are officially still a secret with governments neither confirming nor denying their presence.

As many campaigners and parliamentarians in some European nations see it, this ambiguity has often hampered open and democratic debate about the rights and wrongs of hosting nuclear weapons.

However, the flashcards studied by soldiers tasked with guarding these devices reveal not just the bases, but even identify the exact shelters with “hot” vaults that likely contain nuclear weapons.

*snip*

[Xoan]

1. Scary ...

that dumbfucks get this far in our great military.

[erronis]

2. And we expect young people to not blab on social media?

It is extremely difficult for most of us to understand how seemingly innocent posts and pictures can reveal a ton of information that should not be exposed.

Even during the Iraq and Afghanistan invasions the US/allies had to allow personnel access to some of the worst collectors and leakers of data such as facefook, twitter. I'm sure every IC agency around the world was hoovering everything they could.

Bellingcat also relies on the huge troves of free (and some paid) data sources from the ussr (aka russia). Apparently there are lots of people under putin that are happy to supply highly sensitive information to outsiders.