Published Jun 4, 2026, 2:06 PM EDT
A new bipartisan letter in Congress calls on DOD to swiftly address what lawmakers view as serious dangers to service members.
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Published Jun 4, 2026, 2:06 PM EDT
A group of 14 bipartisan lawmakers in both the House and Senate want answers on military service members' protections as the Department of Defense for "the first time" acknowledged how location data is leading to active targeting in war zones. The May 28 letter, signed by U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rep. Pat Harrigan (R-N.C.), expresses "serious concern" that DOD has not taken the necessary steps to adapt to counterintelligence and force protection threats posed by the collection and sale of personal information, including cell phone location data, by data brokers. The lawmakers wrote that while DOD has known about such concerns for over a decade, it "has failed to adopt commonsense cyber defenses that are recommended by federal agencies." The letter was addressed to Kirsten Davies, chief information officer at DOD. "This is the first time DOD has confirmed that adversaries are using commercial location data to target U.S. military personnel in an active war zone," the letter reads. "Commercial location data can be used to identify where U.S. troops congregate and their pattern of life, which can be exploited by adversaries to target attacks such as missiles, drones and roadside bombs, as well as for counterintelligence purposes. "That foreign adversaries are still able to buy location data collected from the phones of U.S. personnel serving in military hotspots is a direct result of DOD leadership’s failure to prioritize this threat and implement common-sense cyber defenses recommended by federal cybersecurity experts."
