Facebook warfare as Taliban dupe Aussie troops

The Taliban are using Facebook to steal military secrets from soldiers as the war on terror goes digital.

The tech-savvy terrorist group is luring Australian troops into sharing military secrets by posing as "attractive women" on the social networking site, seducing soldiers into divulging top secret missions and plans.

According to a review of the Australian military's use of social media, both soldiers and their close ones may be jeopardising operations by being too lax with their knowledge online.

The report interviewed over 1500 military personnel with over half (58%) failing to receive any social media training, leading army chiefs to question the security problems associated with soldiers conversing on the internet.

News.com.au says the review found an "overt reliance" on privacy settings which too-often lulled soldiers onto a "false sense of security".

The Taliban's actions as a firm commonly associated with creating fake profiles befriending soldiers has led the federal government to raise awareness of the risks of social media at war, while drawing attention to "geo-tagging" - the logging of locations where posts are submitted.

Recommending the need for increased technological training amongst soldiers, the review warns relatives of the danger soy sharing names, ranks and locations on sites such as Facebook and Twitter, while some military figures believe an outright social media ban would be the safest option.

The social media military review says:

"Many individuals who use social media are extremely trusting. Most did not recognise that people using fake profiles, perhaps masquerading as school friends, could capture information and movements.

"Few consider the possibilities of data mining and how patterns of behaviour can be identified over time."

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