Russia's invasion of Ukraine may be a major military conflict that can be tracked live on the internet.
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Jeffrey Lewis, an arms control expert, noted in a tweet that armored vehicles were visible from a traffic jam update. It's a sign of the challenges that militaries face when trying to covertly move in an age of pervasive monitoring.
It is difficult to hide the traffic delays caused by moving an armored column, according to a political science professor at Case Western Reserve University. Even a low-ranking member of a military can give away a lot of information unintentionally.
Russia has been vague about its intentions in the country, but its troops may have been spotted online on Wednesday moving through the country. There was a traffic jam on the road from Belgorod, Russia, to the Ukrainian border.
Lewis wrote that the traffic started where we saw a Russian formation of armor.
Social media has been filled with images of Russian aircraft and troops attacking Ukraine. Military movements are hidden due to technological advances. Rapidly updated imagery from commercial satellites being placed in the public domain could provide opportunities for public photo analysis.
The integration of other technologies into online mapping can provide further information for analysis, he said.
Billy Zsambok, a professor of geospatial intelligence at the University of Arizona, said that most modern militaries don't make a point of hiding their military equipment, even though they have line of sight to their location. The most sensitive equipment is hidden.
The increasing number of commercial satellites has made hiding equipment and activities difficult.
Intelligence on military movements can be collected by almost anyone with an internet connection.
If a satellite observes a line of sight, maps can show troop movements. Satellite imagery coverage depends on who pays for it.
Zsambok said that it would be too expensive for the company to pay for global high-resolution imagery collection. The vendor collects the imagery and gives it to the customer, but the other customer pays for it.
The vendor places the imagery at a discounted price to others that want to use it. That is where the imagery is acquired and added to the application.
Military movements have been leaked in the past. The routes of troops at the bases in Afghanistan were revealed by fitness tracker websites. Satellite data has been used to find mass graves outside of Srebrenica in Bosnia.
Improving camouflage, being able to distract satellites, and reducing data availability around troop movements are some of the ways that the U.S. and other countries are looking for to hide in this high-tech environment.
The sudden lack of information coming from a particular area may be just as telling as the presence of it.
It's hard to hide troop and vehicle movements these days.
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