Paris:
A French sailor’s seemingly innocent morning run reportedly exposed the exact location of the country’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean –a shocking security blunder amid war between the US and Iran in the Middle East. It was the morning of March 13 when Arthur (name changed) started his morning workout on the deck of the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier while it headed for the eastern Mediterranean Sea. He used his smartwatch to record his performance: a little over seven kilometres covered in thirty-five minutes.
However, the data collected was uploaded to the internet in real time, as the sailor was using the sports app Strava, and his profile was “public”, according to a report by French publication Le Monde.
The young man, therefore, inadvertently reported, almost live, the exact location of the aircraft carrier and its escort in the Mediterranean Sea, sailing northwest of Cyprus near the Turkish coast, the French outlet reported.
The French Navy’s flagship, the Charles de Gaulle, is reportedly the only nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in operation outside the US military. Its presence in the region, along with at least three frigates and a supply ship, is no secret. On March 3, French President Emmanuel Macron himself announced that he had ordered its deployment, just days after the start of the war between Israel, the United States, and Iran, to protect shipping routes from Iranian attack.
Four days before the sailor recorded his run, Macron even gave a speech aboard the warship, which had been rerouted from exercises in the North Atlantic. But while the ship’s presence in the region was known, the sailor had “revealed, almost in real time, [the ship’s] exact location”, exposing it to security risks.
The Strava Risk
This is not the first time that the fitness app has raised security concerns. Earlier, public data on Strava was used to find sensitive data on bodyguards for world leaders like US presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden and Russian president Vladimir Putin. It also reportedly revealed patrol schedules of French nuclear submarines.
