Loose Tweets Destroy Fleets: Air Force Warning of New ‘Social Media Dangers’

21st Century Wire says…

The police state will have the American public believe it is at war with an existential overseas enemy, and are now keen to lock-down social media activity of its armed forces.

Last week, the US military issued a press report claiming that the “ISIS Hacking Division” stole the details of 1,400 mostly US military and government personnel, before urging supporters to attack the names on the list. After this, as standard it seems, alleged unnamed ‘supporters of ISIS’ on Twitter posted the personal details of soldiers and staffers, and encouraged ‘lone wolves to act and kill’ those on the list. It turns out the list was an old one, with old data on a spreadsheet.

Was it a real ISIS hack? The seems to be some confusion surrounding these ‘major security breeches’. The Guardian reports:

“This is the second or third time they’ve claimed that and the first two times I’ll tell you, whatever lists they got were not taken by any cyber attack,” the army chief of staff, Gen Ray Odierno, said on Wednesday. This is no different than the other two,” he said, referring to earlier so-called hacks by Isis supporters in January and May. But I take it seriously because it’s clear what they’re trying to do … even though I believe they have not been successful with their plan.”

A computer security expert, Troy Hunt, also cast doubt on the alleged hack, suggesting much of it could have been scraped from existing data breaches or publicly available information. “It’s pretty clear that it’s been aggregated from different sources,” he said. “It’s been put together on the basis of a .gov or .mil address. Even the passwords, they’re not strong enough to have come from a corporate or government.”

Aside from the official proclamation on the incident, there is no way to independently verify the actual validity of any of these ‘hacking’ reports and subsequent ISIS social media admissions. Regardless, hot on the heals of this recent national story, military appear to be trying to capitalize on the fear – warning US military personnel to, “be careful on social media”…

Is the US in the process of closing down?

Loose lips sink ships. Origination of this saying is quite interesting. We all need practice http://t.co/LCQn30ckdQ pic.twitter.com/MVcnSoeWuD

— Dane Young (@youngtech) August 13, 2015

Reader Wilson Boozer comments, “Over a decade ago, Bushwinkle warned gullible citizens that Iraq was on the verge of attacking the US. They had no troop carriers, no international transport ships or intercontinental bombers, and the only way they could have been a threat was by flying to the US on commercial flights. Yet many soldiers were sacrificed to this paranoia, while they did horrific damage to a country that had done nothing nasty to the US. Are we about to be bamboozled again?”

More on this story…

RT.com

Posting status updates on Twitter and Facebook in the modern day can potentially put individuals in danger of losing their jobs, but the US Air Force is warning service members that posting on social media can even “destroy fleets” if they’re not careful.

The new warning comes directly from US Air Forces Central Command officials at the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, accompanied by a photograph featuring a fleet of jets and text saying, “Loose tweets destroy fleets.”

Specifically, the Air Force says that even though social networks have allowed service members to keep in touch with people back home, they should be wary of posting information that could potentially identify family members, friends or the military members themselves. Social media messages could potentially reveal location data and individuals could reveal information about deployments, facility locations, training methods and more.

“As social media keeps evolving and there’s more and more avenues to let your friends and family know what you are up to, those same avenues can be used by ISIS sympathizers, ‘lone wolves,’ to track down and hurt our military members outside the safety of the base,” Capt. Jonathan McDonald, AFCENT Force Protection chief wrote in the August 14 message.

“Not only is it important to not post vital mission related information, but it’s also important to not post detailed personal information to keep yourself and your loved ones safe.”

McDonald went on to remind Air Force members to make sure their settings on social media are appropriate and that only friends and family can see what they post.

(…) In June 2015, the Navy updated that slogan for the internet age, releasing a video titled “Loose tweets, sink fleets.” The video warned that social media has helped enemies gain information about military forces and their family members, that that members should be aware of what they’re posting, what hashtags they’re using, and what type of security settings they have enabled.

“What may seem like an innocent post or tweet might just be the missing puzzle piece that aids the enemy,” Petty Officer 2nd Class Jonathan Pankau says in the video.

Read Full Article at RT.com

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21st Century Wire is an alternative news agency designed to enlighten, inform and educate readers about world events which are not always covered in the mainstream media.

Source: http://21stcenturywire.com/2015/08/19/loose-tweets-destroy-fleets-air-force-warning-of-new-social-media-dangers/