Iran War: Officer sends French aircraft carrier's position via Strava

A French Navy officer has apparently unintentionally transmitted the exact real-time position of the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle to the internet while training with a smartwatch connected to the fitness service Strava. This was discovered by the French daily newspaper Le Monde, which claims to know the person's name. A map in the article shows the officer's running route in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, west of Cyprus. This is a huge security loophole, but it should not be surprising. In the past, there have been repeated cases where military personnel have made the locations of military facilities public via fitness trackers.

Learned nothing?

The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier can travel 1000 km per day and has a crew of about 2000 people. A few days after the start of the US and Israeli air strikes on Iran, the flagship of the French Navy was redeployed to the Mediterranean. The aircraft carrier is accompanied by several escort ships. The exact position of the fleet should ideally not be trackable in real-time, especially in view of Iranian attacks that have even reached Cyprus. Yet, this is exactly what the officer enabled via Strava, writes Le Monde. The Navy confirmed to the newspaper that such use of Strava was against regulations and that "appropriate measures" would be taken.

It is not new for sporty users to make sensitive location information public via Strava. Revelations in this regard primarily go back to a discovery from 2018. At that time, Australian student and conflict researcher Nathan Ruser discovered confidential information about military bases worldwide using Strava's publicly accessible world map. This was followed by further such discoveries concerning military personnel worldwide. In 2024, Le Monde then made public that bodyguards and intelligence agents responsible for protecting high-ranking politicians were disclosing their whereabouts via Strava.

Regarding the most recent case, the daily newspaper now writes that the location data discovered on Strava fit very well with satellite images showing the arrival of the Charles de Gaulle in the eastern Mediterranean. However, these satellite images were made public with a significant delay. France's navy is primarily supposed to protect Cyprus there, after a drone of Iranian design hit a British military base there. The Charles de Gaulle is France's only aircraft carrier. Its successor is scheduled to enter service in 2038 and will cost 10 billion euros, France24 reported a few days ago. French President Emmanuel Macron announced that the ship would be named "France libre".

(mho)