British soldiers have been warned Russian spies could target phone data
British troops have been warned that the Kremlin could spy on their phones when they conduct military exercises near the country’s border.
Thousands of British soldiers have been deployed to countries which border Russia to conduct major land and air assault exercises as part of Operation Steadfast Defender, Nato’s largest military exercise since the Cold War.
Lieutenant Colonel Grant Brown warned troops in Estonia that Russian agents could carry out an “electronic collect” of data on their mobile phones, according to The Times.
He wrote: “We must be under no illusions. Russia will be watching us as we prepare, as we deploy and as we are operating in Europe.
“That’s a good thing, it is the whole point of this deployment. But it will mean a rigorous approach to things like the use of mobile phones while out in theatre.
“We must expect Russian agents to be conducting an electronic collect on us while there, so the measures we will have in place are designed to protect all of us.”
Russia has been accused previously of compromising the smartphones of Nato personnel in order to mine or delete contacts and intimidate soldiers.
The British force at the base in Estonia has several measures in place to counter the threat, including a rule that phones are to be left in dorm rooms during exercises.
Geo-tagging reportedly must also be disabled to stop locations being revealed.
One soldier said that the main threats were phones being used to trace their location being tracked and the contact details of friends and family being hacked.
He said: “Typically what you would see particularly in the Operation Herrick days [the codename for the Afghanistan campaign], is them getting access to personal contact details of loved ones at home and just trying to use that against us. They’re just trying to use any asset that is available to them.
“So, again, it’s why it’s very important to stick to the guidance that’s pushed out from above.”
Brigadier Mark Berry, commander of the 16 Air Assault Brigade Combat Team, said not using mobile phones would make troops “harder to find”.
He said: “Electronic surveillance is a tool that many different nations have, so it’s important for our soldiers that they get used to taking the precautions that will limit any adversary.”
“Simply going back to what we call ‘reversionary methods’, old-fashioned ways of doing business, not using GPS but using maps and compasses, we’re hiding from those enemy surveillance tactics.”
