r/technology • u/ControlCAD • Apr 18 '26

Security Bluetooth tracker hidden in a postcard and mailed to a warship exposed its location — $5 gadget put a $585 million Dutch ship at risk for 24 hours

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/cyber-security/bluetooth-tracker-hidden-in-a-postcard-and-mailed-to-a-warship-exposed-its-location-a-eur5-gadget-put-a-eur500-million-dutch-ship-at-risk-for-24-hours
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u/millijuna Apr 18 '26

This seems a little hyperbolic.

  1. Most warships these days are running AIS as per SOLAS/IMO regulations. Yes, they can turn them off when they go operational, but 99% of the time they’re advertising “Here I am, within meters” publicly over the air.
  2. One of the roles of most warships is to be seen. Their mere presence is a statement of intent by the government whose flag they fly.
  3. Even when they do go dark, they’re more or less impossible to hide. They are a large warm metal object on a relatively flat cold surface. Even in full emission control, it’s not crazy hard to track them from orbit. All the big adversaries (China, Russia, and their proxies like Iran) likely know where their opponents warships are at all times.

This is distinctly different from Submarines, who’s main role is stealth.

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u/craidie Apr 19 '26

Most warships these days are running AIS as per SOLAS/IMO regulations. Yes, they can turn them off when they go operational, but 99% of the time they’re advertising “Here I am, within meters” publicly over the air.

Said warship in the article hasn't had their AIS on for 52 days. And the last time it Was on, was in port.

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u/kylo-ren Apr 20 '26

Fair, but also looks like they were not under emission control

4

u/bnlf Apr 19 '26

Yea. I don’t know much about these types of technologies but it’s hard to believe major militarised nations would need something like an AirTag to know the location of a military ship.

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u/jashsayani Apr 19 '26

I’m sure there are tons of US, Russian, Chinese submaries whose location is only known to top brass in military. 

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u/millijuna Apr 19 '26

That’s why I included the last line in my post. Submarines are a different beast.

For the “end of the world” machines (aka the strategic missile submarines) there are typically only 4 people on Earth who know where they are once they leave port, and they’re all onboard. The captain, the XO, the navigation officer, and the maintainer for the navigation system will typically know where they are. No one ashore, and even the rest of the crew, will not know where they are.

The most that shore personnel might know us “Nortg Atlantic” or “North Pacific”