Pentagon Acknowledges Adversaries Have Used Commercial Location Data to Track U.S. Troops

U.S. adversaries are using location data from troops' phones to target soldiers in war. The United States military has known for years that enemies could use location data to track troops' phones.

The Pentagon adopted almost none of the easy fixes for location data tracking of troops' phones. US law enforcement warned this week about “anti-tech extremism”. After a nearly 90-day internet shutdown, connectivity started to trickle back into Iran this week.

Researchers cautioned that it is unclear how extensive the restoration of connectivity in Iran will be and whether it will only return temporarily. Cybercriminals and offensive hackers are ramping up their use of AI to exploit vulnerabilities and develop hacking tools. AI is radically changing the dynamics of how security researchers hunt for vulnerabilities.

Scammers are using real hotel reservation data and other travel details to conduct effective spear-phishing campaigns. Scammers potentially accessed customer data from 350 hotels and vacation rentals around the world. A Russian-language ransomware operation called Play has affected more than 900 organizations since 2022.

Play posted to its dark-web leak site on Monday claiming it had pulled private and personal confidential data, clients' documents, budget, payroll, IDs, taxes, and other financial records from MyPillow. MyPillow is a Minnesota-based home goods company run by Mike Lindell. Mike Lindell is among at least 10 Republicans seeking the party’s nomination for governor of Minnesota in August’s primary.

Mike Lindell is one of the most prolific backers of Donald Trump’s false claims of victory in the 2020 election. Play set a Friday deadline for MyPillow to make contact before publishing the data online. Lindell told Straight Arrow News that his company was not hacked and that allegations that it was are a political hit job.

Lindell said, “This is another hit job by outside sources because I’m running for governor. I guarantee it. 3 million in damages.

A federal judge in Minnesota ruled in September that Mike Lindell had defamed Smartmatic through 51 false statements about its voting machines. The FBI said this week that the Silent Ransom Group is sending people to company offices to directly get access to computers. The Silent Ransom Group is targeting law firms.

By sending someone in person to the victim’s location to facilitate the intrusion, SRG actors exfiltrate data to an external hard drive or USB drive inserted by the threat actor into the victim’s computer. Security researchers say the in-person data theft tactic by Silent Ransom Group has not been seen before. BusPatrol has installed its cameras in tens of thousands of US school buses.

BusPatrol will now turn those cameras into automatic license plate readers that will record the location of every vehicle a BusPatrol school bus passes and make the data available to law enforcement without a warrant. University of Chicago sociology professor Rob Vargas found this month that the Chicago Police Department was four minutes faster in responding to the most urgent non-gunshot 911 calls in the six-month period after Mayor Brandon Johnson shut down ShotSpotter in 12 neighborhoods in September 2024.

Rob Vargas analyzed Chicago city data as well as data obtained through public records requests and compared the time period with the preceding six months during which ShotSpotter was still active.

Rob Vargas told WTTW News that it is clear that ShotSpotter wasted officers’ time by sending them on wild-goose chases.