New Delhi: The real-time movement of the only French operational aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, has surfaced worldwide after a sailor’s routine fitness exercise on the deck of the nation’s flagship carrier was released while the vessel was deployed in the Mediterranean Sea.
According to the French newspaper Le Monde, the sailor recorded a 4.3-mile distance, which included a 35-minute workout on the carrier’s deck, as it was moving towards the eastern Mediterranean on 13 March. The movement data surfaced when the sailor uploaded his exercise data to a public Strava account, effectively showing the exact location of the nuclear-powered carrier.
This is not the first such breach. US bases, French nuclear‑submarine routines, and the Swedish prime minister’s private residences have been revealed inadvertently through Strava.
Paris deployed its aircraft carrier with several frigates in the Mediterranean Sea after the conflict that broke out in West Asia after the joint operation led by the US and Israel against Iran to secure the shipping lanes and support allies. The carrier is supported by several warships.
A few days before the data leak, the French president delivered a speech on the carrier’s deck, calling the vessel a “balancing power” and a symbol of French peace and strength.
“France is there to protect its own, to be at the side of its allies and friends who are being hit. Your (sailors) presence today demonstrates the power of France, a balancing power, one of peace,” the French president said while explaining the reason to deploy the carrier in the Mediterranean Sea.
Le Monde reported that the general details about the deployment of the aircraft carrier were in the public domain, but the Strava data revealed the precise details of the movement of the vessel.
France’s Charles de Gaulle is the only operational nuclear-powered aircraft carrier outside the US Navy. The vessel has a displacement level of 42,000 tonnes, which can carry 40 aircraft and can travel anywhere due to its nuclear power.
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Growing security risk
The use of fitness bands has turned out to be a big security risk for the Western military apparatus. As in 2018, a military analyst observed that a soldier who was tracking his run unfortunately revealed the layout of one of the most secretive US Army bases and clandestine spy outposts through Strava.
In the past, the French Navy has also been the victim of such a breach, when a crew member of France’s ballistic-missile nuclear submarines, which was on base, also revealed the exact details of the ship through the Strava fitness app.
Even though the secretive military facilities have stringent security, including facial scanners and the confiscation of smartphones after a checkpoint, but the smartwatches are largely overlooked by the senior officials.
Additionally, due to the advancing technology, smartwatches can store GPS data without being connected to the internet. Therefore, the crew members are being able to record and later upload the sensitive data to Strava.
The Swedish breach
The breach of personal sensitive data through the fitness tracker is not just limited to the military assets but also includes the personal security of world leaders.
In a separate high-profile case, the actual details about the routine of Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson became public knowledge because one of the bodyguards of the premier from the Swedish security service (Sapo) was using the same fitness app.
Dagens Nyheter, a Swedish daily, reported that over 1,400 workouts were uploaded by several different bodyguards on at least 35 occasions. The shared location included the coordinates of the premier’s private residences, hotels that were used during diplomatic missions, etc.
Another significant leak occurred during a high-level summit in Bodø, Norway, where Kristersson met with his Norwegian and Finnish counterparts. This became public knowledge when the leader’s post matched the coordinates of the bodyguard’s Strava post.
However, after this leak, the Strava profiles were taken down, and the Swedish authorities launched an extensive review of the security procedures to determine how the data could be used to make the activities of the prime minister.
(Edited By Nardeep Singh Dahiya)
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