US Service Members Told To Keep A Low Profile On Social Media
Safety Through Privacy
On Sunday evening the FBI issued a warning to all US Service
members the dangers of having too much information of themselves on social
media. The intelligence bulletin posted by a joint effort between
FBI and The Department of Homeland Security had officials telling service
members to ‘scrub’ their social media profiles clean. By doing this, they hope
to prevent anyone in the forces being targeted by violent extremists operating
within the US once personal identities had been discovered.
The report said that: 'The FBI and DHS recommend that
current and former members of the military review their online social media
accounts for any information that might serve to attract the attention of ISIS and its supporters.’ It continued to recommend that service members
should ‘routinely exercise operational security in their interactions online’.
The report was confirmed by the Pentagon, but the chance of
immediate danger was greatly played down.‘This is nothing new for us. The department has long been
aware and mindful of the potential for home grown extremism, and we have
continued to encourage and to advise all of our personnel to exercise the
maximum amount of vigilance.’ Said Col. Steven Warren, a Defense Department
spokesperson.
A similar warning was posted in October when the FBI warned
military personnel to be vigilant after Islamic State militants called on
supporters to scour social media for addresses of their family members — and to
‘show up and slaughter them.’ It was also feared that there would be copycat
attacks following on from the attack on Canadian Parliament last month.
The bulletin warned against using geolocation apps which
would post locations and told service members to keep their information as
private as possible in order to stay safe.
Social media has proven to be one of ISIS’ most valuable
tools in their horrific and cowardly campaign and they have been attempting to
recruit from outside Iraq for a large amount of time now.
Unfortunately, now it would seem that there are more reasons
to keep your social media profiles private than to just hide those topless
photos.
It’s a scary world when people are utilizing social media to
source terror. Especially when you consider just how fast social media is still
growing.
Tom has just graduated from University of East London in Creative and Professional Writing. He loves writing and is currently interning as a content writer hoping to go further. His other loves include Arnold Schwarzenegger films and his dog. Follow him @TomAtSMF
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US Service Members Told To Keep A Low Profile On Social Media
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