Facebook Leak Kills Military Operation

This was written by Mallory Micetich on Friday, March 5, 2010, 10:38.

Military officials in Israel called off a planned raid on a village in the West Bank after details of the raid were posted on Facebook. The details were posted by a combat solder and included the time and location of the raid.  The solider was subjected to court martial and sentenced to ten days in jail.

This incident raises flags about information sharing on social media sites. Security researchers have warned that individuals posting pictures and information to social networking sites can and will compromise military action. Not only do pictures give visual clues to location, pictures are also embedded with information relating to computer IP address, date, time, server location and owner.

In efforts to thwart future leaks, the Israeli army is placing posters containing images of adversaries on mock Facebook pages, and posing the question, “You think that everyone is your friend?”