The War In Ukaine Shows Why Soldiers Have To Put Their Mobile Phones Away
Contrary to civilian life, convenience is far less important than electronic security in a wired battlefield. JL
Christopher Woody reports in Business Insider:
Phones have been a vulnerability for Russia since its military attacked
Ukraine. Ukrainians and foreign governments have
eavesdropped on Russian troopsusing unsecured phones. Ukrainians have alsotrackedRussian generals making unsecured calls and used the information to launch attacks. Your electronics are giving away more information about you than you think. The risk posed by electronic emissions is salient, as those
emissions could allow rivals to track them, listen to their
communications, or attack them. "Every time you press a button, you're emitting."
The use of new technology on the battlefield has prompted the US military to rethink its operations as it prepares for a future conflict with a technologically advanced adversary, and many of its changes have been validated by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, US Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger said this month.
One of the most important lessons is that your electronics are giving away more information about you than you think, said Berger, who has led an effort to develop capabilities to operate in a more dispersed manner since taking over as the Corps' top officer in July 2019.
The risk posed by electronic emissions is salient for Marines, as those emissions could allow rivals to track them, listen to their communications, or attack them.
"We have to be distributed. You have to have enough mobility that you can relocate your unit pretty often. You have to learn all about — like some of us learned 30 years ago — camouflage, decoys, deception," Berger said at a Defense Writers Group event on December 8. "What we didn't worry so much about 30 years ago now is every time you press a button, you're emitting."
For young soldiers, sailors, and Marines, cell phones and other devices are part of everyday life, and managing those devices' emissions will require unlearning some habits, Berger said.
New Marine recruits turn in cell phones at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego in October.US Marine Corps/Lance Cpl. Jacob Hutchinson
"They don't think anything about pressing a button. This is what they do all day long. Now we have to completely undo 18 years of communicating all day long and tell them that's bad. That will get you killed, so turn your cell phone off," Berger said at the event. "They're like, 'I won't touch it. It just stays on.' No, there's parts of the cell phone you don't understand."
Targeting cell phones has been a feature of the fighting between Russia and Ukraine since 2014. Russian hackers have usedmalwarein phone apps to track Ukrainian artillery units and have sent propaganda to Ukrainian phonesusing simulatorsthat imitate cell towers.
Phones have been a vulnerability for Russia since its military attacked Ukraine in February. Ukrainians and foreign governments have eavesdropped on Russian troopsusing unsecured phonesto talk to each other and to their families in Russia. Ukrainians have also reportedlytrackedRussian generals making unsecured calls and used the information to launch attacks.
In 2018, the Pentagon banned the use of geolocation functions on phones by personnel in "operational areas" after it was reported that troops usingfitness trackerswere revealing their locations and even the layout of their bases.
Securing communications and reducing electronic signatures is especially important for the Marines Corps as it develops concepts for operating small, mobile units within range of Chinese forces — and of Chineseintelligence-gathering platforms— in the Western Pacific Ocean.
Marines have testednew technologiesmeant to providemore securecommunications between their units and with other forces, but using phones and other devices could still allow adversaries to track their movements in peacetime and to strike in wartime.
During an exercise in California in 2019, a Marine compromised his unit bytaking a selfie that revealedtheir location. "They were like, 'OK, you guys are dead,'" a Marine general said at the time.
A US Air Force officer uses a land mobile radio as a B-1B bomber lands at in Diego Garcia in October 2021.US Air Force/Staff Sgt. Hannah Malone
The collection of electronic signals "is absolutely becoming more and more ubiquitous," Berger said this month.
Operating in such an environment means "electronic signature management is huge," Berger said, adding that the Corps is headed toward signals-intelligence operations being "pushed down to much lower levels" of the force "than some of us were accustomed to."
The US Air Force, which is developing its own conceptfor dispersed operations in the Pacific, faces a similar challenge in managing electronic emissions, according to Chief Master Sgt. David Wolfe, senior enlisted airman for US Pacific Air Forces.
"The Chinese especially have a very robust intelligence network themselves, so they're trying to figure out what we're doing. We're doing the same thing, so it's a game of known cat-and-mouse," Wolfe said in an interview ata summit of senior enlisted leadersin Washington DC in August.
"We're trying to help our people understand that everything that you say and do is subject to monitoring by everybody," Wolfe told Insider. "I mean, my phone's in my pocket right now. We could be recorded right now and not know it."
As a Partner and Co-Founder of Predictiv and PredictivAsia, Jon specializes in management performance and organizational effectiveness for both domestic and international clients. He is an editor and author whose works include Invisible Advantage: How Intangilbles are Driving Business Performance. Learn more...
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