NATO has carried out an internal cyber security experiment to test the extent to which its troops could be identified and influenced during an exercise by means of social media data. A report on the experiment mentioned that the researchers “identified a significant amount of people taking part in the exercise and managed to identify all members of certain units, pinpoint the exact locations of several battalions, gain knowledge of troop movements to and from exercises and discover the dates of active phases of the exercises.” In addition, the researchers were able to get soldiers to display “undesirable behavior”.

The results highlight how the use of social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram by soldiers puts army units at risk, as it can enable adversaries to spy on NATO troops and even manipulate individual soldiers.