What rings in a soldier's backpack? The Russian army may abandon cell phones with navigation and cameras Banning mobile phones in the army

13.12.2020Heading: Questions

Forbidden connection

The fight against mobile devices in the Russian army began in the mid-2000s. In October 2005, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov approved “ Instructions on the regime of secrecy in the Armed Forces", which completely prohibited the use cell phones in units and headquarters. Four years later, under public pressure, the rules for the circulation of mobile phones in the army were liberalized.

In December 2009, the troops received instructions from the Minister of Defense No. 205/2/862, which lifted the ban on using telephones, albeit with major reservations. Conscripts could use cellular communication only in designated areas and only on weekends. The rest of the time the pipes were kept in the unit commander's safe. Officers and contract soldiers were categorically prohibited from carrying and storing mobile phones in office premises where “issues containing information constituting state secrets are discussed.”

According to experts, the next round of the fight against gadgets in the army is associated with the growth of their espionage capabilities. Previously, mobile devices were viewed as a potential means of unauthorized photography, audio and video recording. Through modern smartphones a potential enemy can already receive secret information of a strategic nature, without the knowledge of its owners.

Secretly around the world

“All modern smartphones are equipped with system modules satellite navigation, - a source in the Ministry of Defense, who wished to remain incognito, told RIA Novosti. - If someone can gain access to this data, he will learn information about the deployment of units, their movements, and the intensity of combat training. Moreover, on the scale of all Armed Forces.”

Remote hacking mobile devices- this is not some super-complicated task for our Western partners. In 2015, fugitive American agent Edward Snowden said in an interview with the BBC that the US National Security Agency and the British Government Communications Center had developed programs for hacking smartphones that allow them to spy on their owners. For example, the Tracker Smurf program (“Smurf Pathfinder”) determines the location of the device with high accuracy. A year earlier, reports appeared in the Russian media about an unspoken ban on the use of iPhones for military personnel. The Ministry of Defense feared that Apple company can leak coordinates of gadgets to the Pentagon.

One of the reasons for the ban on smartphones could be the desire of the leadership of the Ministry of Defense to limit the activity of soldiers on social networks, which have long turned into a channel for leaking information. The location of units and subunits can be found out by geotags of photos posted by fighters on their personal pages. It is known that at the height of the war in Donbass, Ukrainian “volunteers”, using social networks, very effectively monitored the movement of Russian troops near the border. The analysis of the personal pages of military personnel, apparently, is carried out at a higher level. In August 2017, the Pentagon announced the creation of a social media monitoring service in Russian, English, German, French, Spanish and Japanese, as well as in dialects common in China.

How are they doing?

At the same time, the American military department has been trying to impose discipline among its social network users for more than 10 years. In 2007, in Iraq, American aviation lost four AH-64 Apache helicopters in one day - the vehicles burned out on the ground during a mortar attack. American soldiers were found guilty after posting selfies with cars on Facebook the day before the attack. The militants, as reported by the Pentagon, found geotags with GPS coordinates of the shooting in the metadata of the photo and carried out a precise strike. Soon, the US Army Command issued a memo with six basic rules of conduct in in social networks for soldiers in combat zones and their families (“6 Social Media Considerations for Deployed Soldiers and Their Families”). Similar manuals were published for the Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.

An impressive part of the instructions is devoted to services with geotagging, which, according to the authors of the manual, “can bring the enemy.” The command strongly recommends that soldiers turn off GPS navigation on smartphones. Fighters are encouraged to be extremely selective in online communications as well. There are known cases when the Taliban “attached” soldiers fighting in Afghanistan under the guise of pretty girls as friends on Facebook. “You only add as friends those you know in real life,” the army instructions say. It is interesting that at the beginning of the year, manuals with similar instructions appeared in the Russian Army.

When preparing a conscript for service, parents ask: is it allowed to use a mobile phone in the army? A mobile device has become a commonplace and everyday part of our lives, and sometimes it may seem that without it we are without hands. But the army has its own laws, which only those who have already served or know Russian legislation know with certainty.

Not everyone has such knowledge, so we will help you figure out whether it’s even worth taking your phone with you to the army or whether it’s a useless exercise and it’s better to leave it at home.

Should you take a phone into the army?

The telephone is the only means of communication for a conscript with home, family and relatives, so, of course, you need to take it. In the army in 2019, it is allowed to use a cell phone, but you should remember the basic rules, if violated, the soldier will have to answer to the command to the fullest extent of army laws:

The order of the Minister of Defense, registered in 2009, determines that in the Russian army you can use the telephone only on certain days and hours, which are established by the leadership of a specific military unit.
In 2019, you can also have a phone in your personal time, that is, you will have to forget about it while on duty in daily duty. The same applies to the garrison.
To better understand the rules, find and download the “Army and Law” application to your smartphone; before joining the draft, study it from A to Z, this will help you avoid many punishments for misconduct. In the mobile program, you can also ask a lawyer a question if a controversial situation suddenly arises, but it’s better not to let it get to that point.

You need to notify your family members about these rules of army life, which are in force for conscripts in 2019, and explain that the army is not a walk-in yard where you can afford to do whatever you want. This is your job for the next 12 months, and work according to a clearly established schedule; now they decide for you when you get up in the morning and when you go to bed.

In fact, you are not able to fully manage your life for a whole year, so you will have to forget about talking on the phone for a long time and when your parents or girlfriend need it.

Which phone is better to take into the army?

So, we have already found out that it is not only possible for a conscript to take a phone, but even necessary, but using it is subject to restrictions. Some military personnel take 2 devices with them at once, hand one over to the person in charge, and hide the second in their uniform pocket, but the unit does not approve of such experiments.

Think about how much you need a mobile phone - during study and training, physical and strength endurance exercises, the mobile phone may fall out and break, then you will definitely be in trouble, and you won’t be able to return the device, it is useless.

That is why former soldiers do not recommend deliberately “earning” yourself outfits and punishments out of turn; you are called into the army to learn something, and not to wash floors or peel bags of potatoes. New-fashioned smartphones are also useless - they break quickly, even one blow can cause the failure of some functions, which will never happen with a simple push-button device.

Choose a cheap, portable, but reliable version of a mobile device that no soldier would covet and that you don’t mind replacing in the event of a sudden breakdown. This authorized phone should be deposited with a responsible person; once a week it will be issued for calling relatives. The soldier does not need the apparatus for any other purposes.

It happens that the command is not too strict about having a second phone, so sometimes you can ask parents to bring a second mobile phone to the meeting, but only if you carefully study the daily routine and the rules in force in the military unit.

What phones cannot be carried on the territory of a military unit?

To avoid a reprimand and a fine, a soldier must give up GSM cellular communication devices. For ease of use, give preference to a simple model with a microUSB power connector - this is a single standard for charging absolutely all mobile phones; it can be used to charge almost all gadgets, tablets, and phones.

There are many known cases when a soldier lost the personal cord to his smartphone and could no longer simply charge it even with the help of a charger available to a friend. A standard power connector is most often built into LG, Nokia and Alcatel phone models.

If you want to relax after watching an interesting movie with your comrades in the evening, ask your relatives to download a couple of videos to your smartphone, but do not overuse entertainment and hide the modern device somewhere away from prying eyes - in the army only you are responsible for the safety of valuables, no one is safe from theft not insured.

How to arrange leisure time in the army

While in service, a soldier will definitely not be bored, because the day is scheduled literally minute by minute, the daily routine is quite strict - getting up early, certain duties, for example, in the kitchen, training and lights out.

In the absence of a cool phone, you can diversify your leisure time with the following activities:

Get involved in sports - offer to build a sports corner, take the initiative and take part in this important process.

You can make not only barbells and weights, but also full-fledged exercise machines, for which the team will only say “thank you.” There is an opinion that among the “grandfathers” who will soon be demobilized, it is customary to have fun by getting drunk, but here the master is the master, no one will force alcohol into the conscript. Everyone chooses for themselves what suits their taste.

Organize concerts with the participation of soldiers during the holidays, thus earning additional benefits from the command, and maybe even a leave home.

In contact with

Classmates

Experts have found out why smartphones may be banned in the Russian Armed Forces.

Thus, the telegram channel “Doctor Prescribed” published the following text “regarding the ban on smartphones in the army and shouts that “Russian soldiers will be transferred to push-button beggar phones”: “It’s interesting that everyone (following speakers of the level of Klintsevich and Konashenkov and stupid repeaters in the media ) linked to the camera and GPS. They say that the main danger in a phone is the ability to place or send a geotag or “burn” the location of a unit, equipment, or even participation in a “hybrid war.”

Everything is much more complicated and scary for the military of any country.

Firstly, a smartphone can not only transmit GPS coordinates to the enemy (so everyone knows where which units are and what kind of equipment is there - but this will ruin the redeployment or combat exit). He can listen to what is happening around him (even when turned off), film what is happening (even when turned off), and can build a three-dimensional map of the room and building (what if it is a ZKP bunker?). And he can, being connected “just charge via USB” (despite the prohibitions) to the computer, gain access to file system and so on.

And it’s easy to catch metadata - anyway, a person cannot resist writing letters, using instant messengers, updating social networks, etc.

Well, and, of course, there is a psychological moment - when you have a phone without a camera and vazap-viber-skype, there is less chance that you will start sending selfies to someone, chatter in vain and accidentally reveal state secrets. And if you give away state secrets over an open communication - well, you yourself signed the clearance form and took the oath, comrade counterintelligence officer will hear you and come.

Someone will say, “Who needs Vasya the company or the drunken Colonel Ivanov in his smoky division headquarters?” Laugh and laugh. After you read Wikileaks about the tools of the CIA and NSA - and how they worked in all military units, right down to the shabby guardhouse in the North Caucasus Federal District or the repair base of the Baltic Fleet fleet.”

Earlier, the Kremlin Mamkoved channel wrote: “Speaking of smartphones in the RF Armed Forces. Our sources say that there is even a list of acceptable mobile phones, approved at the highest levels.

Most of the acceptable phones are old Alcatel and Samsung. It is noteworthy that all without GPRS modules. Let us recall that the US Armed Forces recently allowed surveillance by Chinese intelligence services through Huawei. Everything is as it is.”

The campaign to ensure information security Russian military, which is perceived with open sarcasm by the “progressive public”.

It is worth noting that earlier at the end of last year, the Russian Ministry of Defense released a list of recommendations on the behavior of military personnel on the Internet. In particular, the military is asked to minimize information about themselves on social networks, disable geolocation data, not talk about their location and not post photos while serving.

Now it came to telephones, and in general, as international experience shows, this was a completely logical step. Naturally, the liberal public writes about the new initiative of the Russian military as saying that “now the soldiers will be left with push-button beggars.” However, there is still a danger of modern smartphones in the hands of career military personnel. The authors of the “Doctor Prescribed” channel talk about it in detail: “Everything is much more complicated and terrible for the military of any country.

Firstly, a smartphone can not only transmit GPS coordinates to the enemy (so everyone knows where what units are and what kind of equipment is there - but this will ruin the redeployment or combat exit). He can listen to what is happening around him (even when turned off), film what is happening (even when turned off), and can build a three-dimensional map of the room and building (what if it is a ZKP bunker?). And he can, being connected “just charge via USB” (despite the prohibitions) to the computer, gain access to the file system, etc.

It’s also easy to capture metadata in smartphones - anyway, a person can’t resist writing letters, using instant messengers, updating social networks, etc.

Someone will say, “who needs Vasya the company or the drunken Colonel Ivanov in his smoky division headquarters?” Laugh and laugh. After you read Wikileaks about the tools of the CIA and NSA - and how they worked in all military units, right down to the shabby guardhouse in the North Caucasus Federal District or the repair base of the Baltic Fleet fleet.”

It’s also interesting what they wrote in another telegram channel: “Speaking of smartphones in the RF Armed Forces. Our sources say that there is even a list of acceptable mobile phones, approved at the highest levels.

As a matter of fact, deliberately moving away from top-end equipment to outdated models is one of the standard methods of the Russian, and not only the army, in terms of providing additional security. Well, since we are talking specifically about smartphones as a private means of communication, then from the point of view of geopolitical interests this is the least of evils.

On the other hand, we have truly entered the era of electronic surveillance of everyone. And now there really are opportunities for such tracking. Moreover, for the most part, these capabilities are concentrated in the hands of the United States. Well, yes, also China. These are states on whose territory there are companies producing hardware and software that are used by billions of people, not just the military, but in general.

But as for the military, measures must be taken as quickly as possible. And the transition to “push-button beggar phones” in in this case- the most painless and easy option for mass and prompt execution. It just so happens that we live in an era of global cyberpunk dystopia, and we have to respond to it with such non-standard methods

In addition, the good old Nokia of the first models can not only provide communications, but can also pass for a throwing weapon. At the same time, for weapons that are lethal and reusable.

MOSCOW, 19 Feb—RIA Novosti, Vadim Saranov. The Department of Defense is preparing to declare war on smartphones. As Kommersant reported recently, soldiers and officers will be asked to use simple push-button phones without cameras and GPS/GLONASS modules. Read about how gadgets threaten the country’s defense in the RIA Novosti article.

Forbidden connection

The fight against mobile devices in the Russian army began in the mid-2000s. In October 2005, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov approved the “Instructions on the regime of secrecy in the Armed Forces,” which completely prohibited the use of cell phones in units and headquarters. Four years later, under public pressure, the rules for the circulation of mobile phones in the army were liberalized. In December 2009, the troops received instructions from the Minister of Defense No. 205/2/862, which lifted the ban on using telephones, albeit with major reservations. Conscripts could use cellular communications only in designated zones and only on weekends. The rest of the time the pipes were kept in the unit commander's safe. Officers and contract soldiers were categorically prohibited from carrying and storing mobile phones in office premises where “issues containing information constituting state secrets are discussed.”

According to experts, the next round of the fight against gadgets in the army is associated with the growth of their espionage capabilities. Previously, mobile devices were viewed as a potential means of unauthorized photography, audio and video recording. Through modern smartphones, a potential enemy can already receive secret information of a strategic nature, without the knowledge of their owners.

Secretly around the world

“All modern smartphones are equipped with satellite navigation system modules,” a source in the Ministry of Defense, who wished to remain anonymous, told RIA Novosti. “If someone can access this data, he will learn information about the deployment of units, their movements, the intensity of combat training. And in on the scale of all armed forces."

Remote hacking of mobile devices is not some super-complicated task for our Western partners. In 2015, fugitive American agent Edward Snowden said in an interview with the BBC that the US National Security Agency and the British Government Communications Center had developed programs for hacking smartphones that allow them to spy on their owners. For example, the Tracker Smurf program determines the location of the device with high accuracy. A year earlier, reports appeared in the Russian media about an unspoken ban on the use of iPhones for military personnel. The Ministry of Defense feared that Apple could leak the coordinates of gadgets to the Pentagon.

How are they doing?

At the same time, the American military department has been trying to impose discipline among its social network users for more than 10 years. In 2007, in Iraq, American aviation lost four AH-64 Apache helicopters in one day - the vehicles burned out on the ground during a mortar attack. American soldiers were found guilty after posting selfies with cars on Facebook the day before the attack. The militants, as reported by the Pentagon, found geotags with GPS coordinates of the shooting in the metadata of the photo and carried out a precise strike. Soon, the US Army Command issued a memo with six basic rules of conduct on social networks for soldiers in combat zones and their families (“6 Social Media Considerations for Deployed Soldiers and Their Families”). Similar manuals were published for the Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.

An impressive part of the instructions is devoted to services with geotagging, which, according to the authors of the manual, “can bring the enemy.” The command strongly recommends that soldiers turn off GPS navigation on smartphones. Fighters are encouraged to be extremely selective in online communications as well. There are known cases when the Taliban “attached” soldiers fighting in Afghanistan under the guise of pretty girls as friends on Facebook. “You only add as friends those you know in real life,” the army instructions say. Interestingly, at the beginning of the year, manuals with similar instructions appeared in the Russian army.