Pentagon Confirms Hostile Forces Used Commercial Location Data to Target Troops in Combat

US Central Command received multiple threat reports confirming adversaries purchased commercial location data to track and target servicemembers deployed in theater, according to documents Senator Ron Wyden shared with the Pentagon. The acknowledgment marks the first official confirmation that nation-state and hostile actors have weaponized the data broker ecosystem against active US forces. A 2016 defense contractor exercise had already demonstrated the vulnerability by tracking special operations forces from domestic bases to Syria using commercially available location datasets.