April 30, 2026:
Armed forces around the world spend countless hours training, developing policies, and applying the best operational security practices, so imagine the size of the egg on the face of the Dutch navy when reporters managed to track one of its warships for less than the cost of a pastry and cup of coffee.
The security snag was reported by Dutch regional broadcaster Omroep Gelderland. In a recent account, Omroep Gelderland journalist Just Vervaart said the broadcaster was able to track HNLMS Evertsen, a Dutch air-defense frigate deployed to help protect France’s aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle against missile threats, by mailing a Bluetooth tracker concealed in a postcard to the ship.
Per Vervaart, the Dutch Ministry of Defense makes it easy to send mail and packages to soldiers and sailors in the Dutch armed forces and posts full instructions online. It's that freely available open-source intelligence data that Vervaart employed to send the tracker to the Evertsen.
The report says the tracker remained active for about 24 hours, showing HNLMS Evertsen leaving port in Heraklion, Crete, and sailing first west along the island’s coast before turning east toward Cyprus. The tracker finally went offline a day later when the ship was near Cyprus and hasn't come back online.
According to Dutch defense officials Vervaart reported the story of how the tracker was found during mail sorting and was disabled. Still, the Ministry is apparently changing its mail policies in response to the incident and will now ban greeting cards containing batteries along with additional reviews of mail guidelines.
The ban on greeting cards containing batteries appears to be a direct response to Vervaart's test, as he chose to conceal the Bluetooth tracker in a postcard after ministry videos and mailing guidance indicated envelopes were not X-rayed, unlike packages, making that route more likely to pass through undetected.
Social media has been an absolute Operational Security disaster for armed forces because even the most innocent appearing post can accidentally include information that's incredibly valuable to the right person. Limits obviously have to be put in place to that end.
Cut soldiers and sailors off from physical mail while on deployment, though, and you're likely to have a mutiny on your hands. Technology has changed, though, and something once as innocuous as posting instructions on how to send mail to military members has to be weighed in a new light.
Currently, you can eliminate targets remotely and with great precision, but you do need to know where so, for warships in particular, you never want to reveal your location to others. This isn't just a military lesson. Technical evolution means issues that were totally acceptable in the world before may now be critical security risks that have yet to enter into your Operational Security equation.