Troops' phones gave away location data to foreign adversaries

[littlemissmartypants]

Lawmakers push DoD to tighten smartphone controls after adversaries exploited commercial tracking data

Brandon Vigliarolo
Thu 28 May 2026 // 21:35 UTC

Getting the location of troops at war might be as easy as buying the data from a legitimate business. America’s foreign adversaries have exploited commercial geolocation data tied to US troops, the Pentagon admits, using it to target or surveil US personnel in the Middle East. Despite that, the Defense Department hasn’t exactly moved fast to secure the information, elected officials say.

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), Representative Pat Harrigan (R-NC), and a dozen other Congress critters sent a letter to DoD CIO Kirsten Davies on Thursday, demanding a change in smartphone security posture among US military branches. Included in the letter is what lawmakers describe as the first public confirmation that commercial location data has been used to target or surveil American troops in active war zones. The information was shared with Wyden’s office in April.

The reason for the delay in publishing the information, Wyden’s team told The Register, was due to “markings that restricted public release,” which Wyden reportedly pushed back on, leading to Thursday’s letter and the attached responses [PDF] from the DoD confirming info purchased from commercial data brokers was used to target troops.

“USCENTCOM [US Central Command] has received multiple threat reports concerning adversary exploitation of commercial location data to target or surveil US personnel in theater,” the DoD’s responses from April indicate.
...
https://www.theregister.com/security/2026/05/28/troops-phones-leaked-location-data-to-foreign-adversaries/5248108

[msongs]

1. one wonders why troops carry personal phones on duty. seems unwise

[Skittles]

6. same reason why most people do

they are addicted to them

[Aviation Pro]

2. Smart watches too

….

[calimary]

3. Ron Wyden is one of mine.

Thank you, Senator Wyden!

[BidenRocks]

4. Too much time fighting DEI and woke and not enough training in COMSEC!

It doesn't exist starting with Petey's group chat last year.
Suicide by cellphone. Unknowingly.
Great leadership, chump!

[Cha]

5. TY Kick for this important revelation, pants.

Watch your own backs, Troops, because there's nothing but incompetence in charge.

☮️💙🌻🕯️🕊️

[taxi]

7. One would think that troops within range of a cell tower

could be easily observed by other methods. If their cell phones are operating through a government operated access point then the military is the source of the data. This seems like an easy fix or a non-existent problem.

[SonOfNebanaube]

8. I was admin for a financial service provider.

Hosted portfolio management for about 40 different brokers operating as a software as a service firm. Unfortunately the boss opted for the trailing edge and not the bleeding edge... What I learned was the nsa's needs basically f***** everybody in terms of business/financial security. From the vulnerable mapping of network drives. Sure, we used fips grade encryption, white listed Vpns, but corporate emails were vulnerable. The domain controllers were vulnerable even when locked down. The list of zero days is endless. And it's pretty much why Microsoft is dead now.