Belgian military in the Baltic States will prohibit the use of devices with geolocation to avoid espionage from the Russian Federation.
The Belgian Ministry of defence intends to tighten restrictions on the use of smartphones for military personnel in order to protect them from cyber espionage and surveillance by foreign governments, in particular Russia. On Saturday, December 29, the Belgian press reported about it.
The restrictions will affect the military serving in the Baltic region, including on the border with Russia. They will be banned from using smartphones "in certain regions and under certain circumstances."
"We've been investing in prevention and awareness for years, but it's not enough. We know that Russia is interested in such geolocation data from mobile devices", - said the head of operations of the Armed forces of Belgium Carl Gillis (Carl Gillis) TV channel VRT.
The geolocation feature in smartphones uses GPS data to determine their location. Many countries have forbidden its military to use mobile devices and applications with the geolocation feature at the time of service abroad in order to avoid espionage.
At the beginning of January 2019, Belgium will place 250 of its soldiers on the territory of Estonia in the framework of NATO operation. Military personnel using, for example, fitness applications like the infamous Strava can jeopardize the entire operation.