Commercial location data is being used to target US servicemembers, lawmakers warn

A bipartisan group of lawmakers warned that the Department of Defense has not taken basic steps to protect U.S. military personnel from counterintelligence and force protection threats posed by data brokers. The lawmakers sent a letter to the Pentagon’s Chief Information Officer, citing concerns about the collection and sale of personal information, including cell phone location data. Unclassified responses shared with the letter stated that U.S. Central Command received multiple threat reports about adversary exploitation of commercial location data to target or surveil U.S. personnel in theater. Location data can be obtained from legitimate brokers for a nominal fee and used to track groups following routines or operating in remote areas. The lawmakers said the continued availability of such data results from leadership failure to prioritize the threat and implement recommended cyber defenses.

"Foreign adversaries have used commercially available data from U.S. servicemembers to target their locations in active war zones, a bipartisan group of lawmakers revealed Thursday."

"In a letter to Department of Defense Chief Information Officer Kirsten Davies, fourteen members of Congress - led by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. Pat Harrigan, R-N.C. - warned that the Pentagon "has not taken basic steps to protect U.S. military personnel from the serious counterintelligence and force protection threat posed by the collection and sale of personal information, including cell phone location data, by data brokers.""

"According to unclassified written responses that the lawmakers shared with their letter, U.S. Central Command revealed last month that it "has received multiple threat reports concerning adversary exploitation of commercial location data to target or surveil U.S. personnel in theater.""

""That foreign adversaries are still able to buy location data collected from the phones of U.S. personnel serving in military hotspots is a direct result of DOD leadership's failure to prioritize this threat and implement common sense cyber defenses recommended by federal cybersecurity experts," the lawmakers wrote."

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