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Taliban faux-friending soldiers on Facebook?

Members of the Taliban are pretending to be attractive women on Facebook to spy on Australian troops in Afghanistan. Because Facebook uses GPS technology to tra...

Federal News Network Staff

September 12, 2012 5:25 pm

< a min read

Members of the Taliban are pretending to be attractive women on Facebook to spy on Australian troops in Afghanistan. Because Facebook uses GPS technology to track where profile updates are made, faux-Facebook friends, who are able to befriend soldiers, are able to find their locations after they update their profiles, according to CSOOnline.

The Australian government reviewed social media protections and found an “overt reliance on the site’s privacy settings led to a “false sense of security.”

CSO reports that by pretending to be attractive women the Taliban is managing to befriend soldiers and find their locations after they update their profiles.

This story is part of Federal News Radio’s daily Cybersecurity Update. For more cybersecurity news, click here.