Experts Manipulate Alliance Troops Via Social Media During Drills

A NATO red team was able to identify alliance troops taking part in an exercise using social media and manipulate some to behave in undesirable ways, reports the Military Times. 

The researchers from NATO's Strategic Communications Center of Excellence, based in Riga, Latvia, targeted troops deployed for exercises in an allied country. 

The team used open-source data to identify 150 soldiers, track the movement of troops and battalions encourage unspecified undesirable behavior, reported Business Insider.  

Social media sites like Facebook and Instagram were most useful in this regard, while Twitter was less effective. 

Facebook was useful for identifying individuals and mapping their links to other troops, reported LSM, Latvia's public broadcaster. The "suggested friend" feature in social media accounts made it particularly easy to map out entire units after identifying one member, the report said.

Many soldiers shared exploitable information on the platforms, including married troops who used dating applications.