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France's aircraft carrier located in real time by Le Monde through fitness app

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Re: France's aircraft carrier located in real time by Le Monde through fitness app

#561

Post by rtkwe »

ninalanyon wrote: post #533
rtkwe wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Under wartime conditions they would but rules are looser out of combat so sailors can use personal devices for entertainment etc to keep morale up.

Are the sailors really such wimps that they can't go without Netflix?

It's more just that peacetime navy life is extremely boring and repetitive when you're deployed at sea. If you're lucky it's mildly mentally stimulating repetitive boredom but there are people who's whole life for 6+ months at a time involves chipping paint off various pieces of the ship and applying fresh paint in the unending fight against corrosion.

Re: France's aircraft carrier located in real time by Le Monde through fitness app

#562

Post by adolph »

ninalanyon wrote: post #534
adolph wrote: post #126

Along with the Strava secret base location leak, another interesting one was the ship with a contraband Starlink: As the Independence class Littoral Combat Ship USS Manchester plied the waters of the West Pacific in 2023, it had a totally unauthorized Starlink satellite internet antenna secretly installed on top of the ship by its gold crew’s chiefs. That antenna and associated WiFi network were set up without the kn…

Was anyone disrated for that quite blatant disregard for naval discipline?

Yes, from the article:

  The chief who set up the WiFi network, dubbed “STINKY,” definitely knew 
  better. Then-Command Senior Chief Grisel Marrero’s “background is in Navy 
  intelligence, and she earned a master’s degree in business administration 
  with a concentration in information security and digital management, 
  according to her biography,” Navy Times noted. She was later convicted at 
  court-martial earlier this year on charges related to the scheme.
For people who are unaware, "STINKY" was the default wifi ssid for at least a time. [0] It is a very distinct ssid, which plays into the discovery of the illicit Starlink: [1]

  Sailors on the ship then began finding the STINKY network and asking 
  questions about it. Some of these questions came to Marrero directly, but she 
  denied knowing anything about the network… and then privately changed its 
  Wi-Fi name to “another moniker that looked like a wireless printer—even 
  though no such general-use wireless printers were present on the ship, the 
  investigation found.”
0. https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/did-your-starlink-just-beco...

1. https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/09/sailors-hid-an-unau...

Re: France's aircraft carrier located in real time by Le Monde through fitness app

#563

Post by toss1 »

varenc wrote: post #332
toss1 wrote: post #102

Seems we need a new digital category for Darwin Awards. This is the modern way to die of stupidity — use your fitness watch app to log your miles on an online app instead of locally — so reveal your operational location. The US had one of its secret bases in Afghanistan fully mapped for anyone to see by its residents logging their on-base runs. Now, the French aircraft carrier is pinpointed en route to a war zone. Ye…

No amount of OPSEC lectures or packet inspection is going to sufficiently keep the carrier's private information private. There's thousands of sailors on these things. When details like its location and readiness level actually need to be secret, all regular internet access should just be cut off. Radio silence. I assume this person had internet access to use Strava because the carrier isn't yet in some higher level…

Yep. A full moat is the only sure way, and indeed, the OPSEC lectures and even pre-announced severe punishments will never be 100% — there is always some idiot who thinks he is special and rationalizes it in his head. Allowing traffic to only a small pre-vetted whitelist of sites works only until someone fires up a VPN, which again, no amount of lectures & punishments will prevent.

Re: France's aircraft carrier located in real time by Le Monde through fitness app

#564

Post by justsomehnguy »

cwillu wrote: post #539
justsomehnguy wrote: post #530

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, yes, Ticonderogas should be so far from the carrier so they couldn't even protect it, despite protecting their carrier is their main duty. Makes sense.

Is that what I said?

You must chose between being pedantic or having a common sense.

Re: France's aircraft carrier located in real time by Le Monde through fitness app

#565

Post by cwillu »

crote wrote: post #272
cwillu wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If de Gaulle is turning off AIS, it stands to reason that it's also turning off the transponders in the air wing.

The US tried this with their Venezuela raid. It resulted in a tanker almost hitting a passenger plane twice in two days. [0] Turning off AIS while allowing civilian traffic is incredibly risky, and creating a huge no-fly zone in the Med is politically tricky. [0]: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/12/16/americas/venezuela-near-c...

They didn't “try” anything, they did something they routinely do.

Re: France's aircraft carrier located in real time by Le Monde through fitness app

#566

Post by fxtentacle »

maxerickson wrote: post #178
fxtentacle wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can rent access to nearly real-time custom satellite targeting for <$3k per image. That means while you're correct that not all countries can afford it, most can.

So you task the satellite to where you know the ship is?

These satellites have 15cm per pixel of resolution, so the image can not only be used to find the ship, but probably you can also count the crew.

Re: France's aircraft carrier located in real time by Le Monde through fitness app

#567

Post by veltas »

locknitpicker wrote: post #519
veltas wrote: post #484

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also, it's clear that a military officer is obviously a legitimate military target in a war. Former

> Former According to reports, he was the commander of the submarine when it was conducting bombing missions on civilian targets in Ukraine. What possibly compels you to believe your "former" qualifier has any relevance?

Relevant to the accuracy of quote

Re: France's aircraft carrier located in real time by Le Monde through fitness app

#568

Post by ninalanyon »

adolph wrote: post #562
ninalanyon wrote: post #534

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was anyone disrated for that quite blatant disregard for naval discipline?

Yes, from the article: The chief who set up the WiFi network, dubbed “STINKY,” definitely knew better. Then-Command Senior Chief Grisel Marrero’s “background is in Navy intelligence, and she earned a master’s degree in business administration with a concentration in information security and digital management, according to her biography,” Navy Times noted. She was later convicted at court-martial earlier this year on…

She didn't learn much in her

> master’s degree in business administration with a concentration in information security and digital management

Surely at a bare minimum the access point should not have been broadcasting its SSID.

Re: France's aircraft carrier located in real time by Le Monde through fitness app

#569

Post by matkoniecz »

marcosdumay wrote: post #250
matkoniecz wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if US government bans US-based companies from selling pictures within area where carrier operates? (of all "national security" reasons these is one of more reasonable ones)

Do them publish the banned coordinates in a list too? Maybe they could put the reason at each line.

No, it would be wide area. Like delay covering entire area of war.

See say https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/leading-satellite-firm-hol...

> Planet Labs PBC, a leading provider of high resolution images taken from space, said Friday it would hold back for 96 hours images of Gulf states targeted by Iranian drone attacks.

Re: France's aircraft carrier located in real time by Le Monde through fitness app

#570

Post by matkoniecz »

rtkwe wrote: post #129
estearum wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As described above the issue would be continuous observation, not how to follow it assuming you never lose sight of it.

Commercial operations like Planet Labs currently cover most of the Earth multiple times a day.

This should not be assumed to be available in case of a war.

See say https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/leading-satellite-firm-hol...

> Planet Labs PBC, a leading provider of high resolution images taken from space, said Friday it would hold back for 96 hours images of Gulf states targeted by Iranian drone attacks.

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