Strava heat map appears to reveal secret military locations
Location details of certain military bases available to be analyzed on Strava's heat map feature
Strava released their global heatmap. 13 trillion GPS points from their users (turning off data sharing is an option). https://t.co/hA6jcxfBQI … It looks very pretty, but not amazing for Op-Sec. US Bases are clearly identifiable and mappable pic.twitter.com/rBgGnOzasq
— Nathan Ruser (@Nrg8000) January 27, 2018
Strava, an app used to track fitness, released 1 billion activities with more than 13 trillion data points in its global heat map showing past whereabouts of users.
The Washington Post posted an online story on Sunday entitled “U.S. soldiers are revealing sensitive and dangerous information by jogging.” The Post, which calls the revealing information “a major security oversight,” reports that the U.S. military is looking into the implications of the map.
The publicly-viewable heat map allows people to zoom in to areas to see any sort of patterns based on fitness activity. The Post provides the example of Iraq and Syria, areas with limited data available based on user-uploaded files. “Zooming in on those brings into focus the locations and outlines of known U.S. military bases, as well as of other unknown and potentially sensitive sites – presumably because U.S. soldiers and other personnel are using fitness trackers as they move around,” the Post writes.
Twitter user Nathan Ruser shared a series of maps outlining the locations of various countries’ bases including those of Turkey and Russia. “It looks very pretty, but not amazing for Op-Sec. U.S. Bases are clearly identifiable and mappable,” he said in the initial tweet followed by a number of self-replies.
In one photo, Ruser says that “if soldiers use the app like normal people do, by turning it on tracking when they go to do exercise, it could be especially dangerous. This particular track looks like it logs a regular jogging route.”
Not just US bases. Here is a Turkish patrol N of Manbij pic.twitter.com/1aiJVHSMZp
— Nathan Ruser (@Nrg8000) January 27, 2018
You can see the Russian operating area in Khmeimim, but also the guard patrol to the NE. pic.twitter.com/iWiX5Kozc1
— Nathan Ruser (@Nrg8000) January 27, 2018
If soldiers use the app like normal people do, by turning it on tracking when they go to do exercise, it could be especially dangerous. This particular track looks like it logs a regular jogging route. I shouldn't be able to establish any Pattern of life info from this far away pic.twitter.com/Rf5mpAKme2
— Nathan Ruser (@Nrg8000) January 27, 2018
Analyst Tobias Schneider tweeted that “fitness and social media company Strava releases activity heat map. Excellent for locating military bases.”
Fitness and social media company Strava releases activity heat map. Excellent for locating military bases (h/t to @Nrg8000). https://t.co/n5RWcI7BJF pic.twitter.com/7zzNcYV42e
— Tobias Schneider (@tobiaschneider) January 27, 2018
Somebody forgot to turn off their Fitbit. Markers trace known military outposts, supply and patrol routes. pic.twitter.com/7YTzoqKgDl
— Tobias Schneider (@tobiaschneider) January 27, 2018
The Guardian reports that one base in Afghanistan “is not visible on the satellite views of commercial providers such as Google Maps or Apple’s Maps.”
Strava have not commented on the Post‘s story as of Jan. 28.
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