## 2 The Need for Secure Military Social Networking
To try to change these social networking habits will be extremely difficult if not impossible. Moreover, the value of banning social networking on defence-administered computer networks has diminished to the point of being of no value at all given the prolific take up of smartphones of which most, if not all, have Facebook and other social networking apps pre-installed. This fact is further emphasised by recent research which predicts the number of mobile social media users to reach 1.3 billion in 2016, surpassing the total number of social media users on all platforms today. ([[http://www.marketwatch.com/story/mobile-social-media-users-to-reach-650m-in-2011-rising-to-13](http://www.marketwatch.com/story/mobile-social-media-users-to-reach-650m-in-2011-rising-to-13) bn-in-2016-2011-12-19]([http://www.marketwatch.com/story/mobile-social-media-users-to-reach-650m-in-2011-rising-to-13](http://www.marketwatch.com/story/mobile-social-media-users-to-reach-650m-in-2011-rising-to-13) bn-in-2016-2011-12-19) accessed 24/02/2012). With evermore usage scenarios for smartphones in the field being developed, such as secure GIS location of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), this social networking enabled mobile technology is becoming essential and ubiquitous. In essence, there are considerable benefits to social networking for military personnel and their families and friends, not least crisis communications via Family Support networks. However, the downside to social networking is the security challenges it creates which at their most severe could potentially compromise OPSEC and/or PERSEC. The personal security of the friends and family of military personnel is also of paramount importance and this can easily be compromised by geo-tagging and additional metadata inadvertently posted on social networking sites within photographs. Metadata has for some time been a source of security breaches. A well documented security breach within a Microsoft Word document that was posted on the website of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the American government that ruled Iraq from April 21, 2003, to June 28, 2004, the document metadata contained a previous version with secret security-related information in it. In social networking, metadata and geo-tagging are causing considerable security concerns. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [2] took just 15 min to identify the exact location (\(\pm\)1 m) of a picture of a bicycle in front of a garage door using the stored geo-coordinates. They further articulate:  
_\"...it is mostly the high-end smartphones today that have GPS built in, including the iPhone, Android-based devices, and the newer Nokia N-series. An alternative (or additional) method for determining the current location is WIFI access point or cell-tower triangulation: correlating signal strengths with known locations allows a user or service to compute a device's coordinates with high precision... If a device does not directly geo-tag media itself, such information can also be added in post-processing, either by correlating recorded timestamps with a corresponding log from a hand-held GPS receiver; or manually using a map or mapping software.\"_  
There are many similar research papers that document the ease with which a maliciously minded social engineer can trace individuals using metadata gleaned from social networking sites. In addition, there are many open source geo-location tools available, for example Creepy ([[http://ilektrojohn.github.com/creepy/](http://ilektrojohn.github.com/creepy/)]([http://ilektrojohn.github.com/creepy/](http://ilektrojohn.github.com/creepy/))) and PleaseRobMe.com ([[http://pleaserobme.com/](http://pleaserobme.com/)]([http://pleaserobme.com/](http://pleaserobme.com/))).