'Robin Sage' Social Hoax Duped Military, Security Pros

ancientribe writes "A social networking experiment of a phony female military security professional known as 'Robin Sage' (named after a US Army Special Forces training exercise) worked way too well, fooling even the most security-savvy professionals on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. It also led to the leakage of sensitive military information after an Army Ranger accepted 'Robin's' friend request on Facebook and his photos from Afghanistan exposed geolocation information accessible to 'Robin.' The researcher who conducted the experiment will show off his findings at the upcoming Black Hat USA conference in Las Vegas, where the real woman pictured in the profiles is scheduled to introduce him for his presentation."

Comments

Re:the army is obselete

[rickb928]

"most effective form of military action is motivated people defending their own land against a foreign invader"

Um, actually, I want my military to not merely engage in an 'effective form or military action'.. I want them to accomplish their mission.

For the U.S., this is not accomplished by defending our land against a foreign invader. It is accomplished by preventing the mounting of an invasion at all. We are blessed with two borders of oceans, and a friendly nation to our north, leaving only a relatively small southern border to face any likely invasion from at all. Our most obvious military opponents would have to use missles and bombers to attack us directly. Our less obvious but no less real attackers use insurgent tactics, and have have sporadic but significant results. We took the fight to them largely, though the TSA is our last line of defense, and the most prominent to most citizens.

Of course, we are in fact being attacked at our southern border. When we realize the magnitude of that assault, we'll need to do a much better job of repelling the assault. This will take some time, and will be unpopular at first.

The most security-savvy professionals

[Anonymous Coward]

ON KINKEDIN, FAILBOOK AND TWATTER ????

I don't think there really are any, my dear.