IDF to block Facebook, Gmail

PatsytheNazi

I know loose lips can sink ships but do you think the Israeli's are taking this a bit too far ? Don't think Hamas have to many IT experts in their ranks sitting in a bunker in Gaza decyphering emails etc.

IDF to block Facebook, Gmail to prevent 'gifts for Hamas'
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/idf-to-block-facebook-gmail-to-prevent-gifts-for-hamas-1.320091

Doctor14

PatsytheNazi wrote: »

I know loose lips can sink ships but do you think the Israeli's are taking this a bit too far ? Don't think Hamas have to many IT experts in their ranks sitting in a bunker in Gaza decyphering emails etc.

IDF to block Facebook, Gmail to prevent 'gifts for Hamas'
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/idf-to-block-facebook-gmail-to-prevent-gifts-for-hamas-1.320091

It merely says that office computers on army bases will have the sites blocked - no more different than what many business do in Ireland (although for different reasons). I think is is probably a prudent measure. I would have assumed that those kinds of computers would have been completely off the internet. I'm fairly sure the Irish Armys computers don't have facebook access as well.

In rest rooms, the computers will have full access but those computer wouldn't normally have confidential files. I'm surprised it wasn't done already.

Delancey

Security - arse biscuits ! Blocking Facebook becuase they're afraid of people posting snaps of Palestinian prisoners subjected to ' happy slapping ' is a far more likely reason. The IDF have had issues with controversial photos being posted on the web.

Doctor14

delancey42 wrote: »

Security - arse biscuits ! Blocking Facebook becuase they're afraid of people posting snaps of Palestinian prisoners subjected to ' happy slapping ' is a far more likely reason. The IDF have had issues with controversial photos being posted on the web.

If you are not going to debate intelligently, then don't debate.

Did you even look at the article - did you understand it or is it (a lot more likely) that you saw the word "Israeli" and decided to wade in with little knowledge and useless quips.

This is not going to stop anyone posting photos on Facebook. If you read it, you would have saw that they are not going into peoples houses and blocking Facebook. People won't be able to use it at work - like 90% of Irish people. Nothing stopping them using it at home.

Manic Moran

Doctor14 wrote: »

If you are not going to debate intelligently, then don't debate.

Did you even look at the article - did you understand it or is it (a lot more likely) that you saw the word "Israeli" and decided to wade in with little knowledge and useless quips.

This is not going to stop anyone posting photos on Facebook. If you read it, you would have saw that they are not going into peoples houses and blocking Facebook. People won't be able to use it at work - like 90% of Irish people. Nothing stopping them using it at home.

Not even that far. It even says that computers in break rooms or mobile devices will not be blocked. They're just blocking it on computers that are in the same physical location as classified material. That doesn't seem unreasonable. The Israeli philosophy seems more realistic than the official US one, for example, where it is theoretically forbidden to have an unclassified computer in the same room as a classified materials, or to bring a mobile 'phone into the room. (In reality, though, it has to be done simply because of infrastructure limitation).

NTM

seamus

PatsytheNazi wrote: »

Don't think Hamas have to many IT experts in their ranks sitting in a bunker in Gaza decyphering emails etc.

There are far more people than Hamas who would be are working hard on intercepting and stealing confidential IDF information.

Aside from anything else, many major data releases come through personnel screw ups. Even something as simple as an email to someone's wife saying, "Sitting here in super-secret bunker, bored and thinking of you....", while he has accidentally attached a confidential document.

BrianD

Doctor14 wrote: »

If you are not going to debate intelligently, then don't debate.

Did you even look at the article - did you understand it or is it (a lot more likely) that you saw the word "Israeli" and decided to wade in with little knowledge and useless quips.

This is not going to stop anyone posting photos on Facebook. If you read it, you would have saw that they are not going into peoples houses and blocking Facebook. People won't be able to use it at work - like 90% of Irish people. Nothing stopping them using it at home.

Well I could imagine that this is where the first security breaches could occur. The Israelis have military service which means many people are called up who are not professional soldiers and otherwise would not be on the front line. They may well not want to be there and may not understand the gravity of the situation or the required secrecy.

Facebook, for example, has location based services as does Twitter. Disinterested person on the front line, Tweets something banal with his/her smartphone giving away his location and perhaps a nice photo of him ans/her his mates i front of a battle tank. Loose talk never got easier and all you have to do is sign up to twitter or Facebook. It doesn't take an expert to work out why a 19 year old Israeli might be so close to the border. Some of them may even think that it would be smart to use Foursquare and all of sudden you have a "swarm" of Israelis in a location.

The Taliban have used laptops to post propaganda material online and more recently to watch video links of drone aircraft. There's plenty of IT expertese on Middle Eastern countries and every side of the Middle Eastern conflicts seem to have money to spend.

PatsytheNazi

seamus wrote: »

There are far more people than Hamas who would be are working hard on intercepting and stealing confidential IDF information.

Aside from anything else, many major data releases come through personnel screw ups. Even something as simple as an email to someone's wife saying, "Sitting here in super-secret bunker, bored and thinking of you....", while he has accidentally attached a confidential document.

Well since you mentioned personal screw ups. I remember a few years ago some idiot from MI5 left a laptop on the underground in London with highly classified information on board. The laptop was never found though I don't know if it fell into the hands of the Britain's enemies.

Manic Moran

Don't know about the tube, but I do recall some senior chap in the RAF left his laptop unsecured during the prep for one of the Iraq ops, the thief returned it with a note that the officer should be hung.

NTM

BrianD

Actually, it's an interesting hypotheses to explore useful social media sites would be to opposing side. Espcially has social media has location based services and is truely portable via smartphones to the front line or to the rear HQ. Also factoring in how many people are careless with social media - inappropriate posts, photos and other behaviour. Didn't the MI5 or 6 chief have her home address on FB and we've already seen that the propaganda war can be lost through inappropriate photos e.g. the Israelis and the prisoner photos/video. Not forgetting that most people don't set their privacy properly.

So let's say, Hamas, start following key Israelis or even select 1,000 Israeli males aged 18-30 at random i.e. those that could be called up to military service. There could be a wealth of information communicated inadvertantly - both from the individuals and their friends. Most of the monitoring could be automated.

Years ago, some countries wouldn't print death notices when there was a military accident for fear of tipping off the enemy. I recall this was the case when a Russian sub sank. The mass appearances of death notices for young men in Murmansk newspapers would be a dead giveaway that something had happened. That was just local newspapers ... now everything goes global via social media.

So I think it's an area that will be of interest in the future and it will be interesting to see if it has any implication for future conflicts.

lapsed

PatsytheNazi wrote: »

I know loose lips can sink ships but do you think the Israeli's are taking this a bit too far ?

Don't think Hamas have to many IT experts in their ranks sitting in a bunker in Gaza decyphering emails etc.

IDF to block Facebook, Gmail to prevent 'gifts for Hamas'
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/idf-to-block-facebook-gmail-to-prevent-gifts-for-hamas-1.320091

Really ? Dumb are they, those Arabs ?