Selling personal information of US soldiers.
Researchers at a university in the United States have found out that personal and sensitive information of US military personnel is being sold online at the lowest price by data brokers in this country.
The sensitive personal information of thousands of serving personnel in the U.S. military is being sold cheaply online by data brokers, according to a study published Monday by a team of Duke University researchers.
According to “CNN”, some of this sensitive information includes the home address and the health status of American soldiers, which is considered confidential and important information.
According to the research conducted, the information of each US Army soldier is available based on the geographic location of their workplace and residence, and some of them are even related to soldiers who live in very sensitive military areas.
The intended price for this information is only $0.12. The study addresses long-standing concerns of US national security officials and foreign experts that, for example, a foreign intelligence service could easily obtain information about the whereabouts and vulnerabilities of members of the US military with a simple online purchase.
Part of the mentioned concerns is due to the fact that fraudsters and abusers inside and outside the country can use this data to blackmail the families of military personnel or prosecute them.
According to Duke University researchers, there are still very few legal restrictions in the United States on buying, selling, and publishing such data.
“There is a very easy way to access this data and information, and you can get it for only 12 cents,” said Justin Sherman, a senior public policy official at Duke University who was involved in the research.
He has stated: If our research team was able to do this by observing the ethical and research principles of the university while respecting privacy to conduct an academic study, a foreign enemy can much more easily and in the blink of an eye use these data for Targeting personnel and using them for blackmail.
The Pentagon and the US intelligence community have long been concerned about how foreign spies have access to Americans’ personal information for abuse.