NATO troops participating in a joint exercise in Latvia were easily fooled by a sham website and a flirtatious but nonexistent woman in a covert test carried out by the alliance. How will they fare against sneaky Russian bots?

Carried out in the summer of 2018 by a team of NATO experts, the cyber experiment involved using a bogus website and a fake Tinder profile to glean sensitive information from unsuspecting troops.

NATO troops used the phony site, marketed as a portal for people serving in the military, to chat about the army and life in general, according to German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel. A few even ordered clothing on a fake e-shop, handing over their home addresses for delivery.

Soldiers looking for some Latvian love while stationed abroad were similarly swindled. On Tinder, the popular dating app, numerous soldiers exchanged flirtatious messages with a fictitious woman, the cruel creation of the NATO cyber experts. Two infantrymen even reportedly agreed to meet with the imaginary lady.

While the story might seem humorous at first glance, there’s nothing funny about being catfished by your own defensive alliance, or so we’re told. In fact, according to NATO’s Center for Strategic Communication, located in Riga, Latvia, the test revealed that the alliance must do more to protect its naive troops from… Russia.

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NATO has repeatedly accused Moscow of spreading fake news and disinformation across the globe. Russian bots have been blamed for just about everything, from Brexit to negative reviews about a Star Wars film.

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