US Soldiers Accidentally Reveal Nuclear Weapon Secrets
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Runaway1956:
US Soldiers Accidentally Reveal Nuclear Weapon Secrets:
For years, US soldiers stationed at military bases in Europe armed with nuclear weapons were unknowingly sharing secret protocols and details on the bases themselves online.
It turns out that the military personnel were relying on flashcard apps to study and memorize the details of the nuclear weapon systems without realizing that the flashcards of highly confidential information would be available online for anyone to look up, according to a Bellingcat investigation. And the flashcards were shockingly detailed, even going as far as helping soldiers remember which specific vaults within a base contained nuclear weapons and which ones were empty - a shocking oversight for information that's otherwise kept under lock and key.
This is yet one more warning that these weapons are not secure," Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, told Bellingcat.
[...] These flashcard apps appear to reveal a great deal of information. By simply looking up the names of specific bases thought to contain nukes, Bellingcat was able to find details not available elsewhere, including about passwords, security procedures, and even the locations of security cameras and information on the duress signals that soldiers are supposed to say when compromised.
[...] Some of the flashcards dated back to 2013 and as recently as April 2021.
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