Somewhere in the Eastern Mediterranean, aboard one of the most powerful warships on the planet, a young French naval officer decided to go for a run. So far, so healthy. He strapped on his smartwatch, opened Strava, and set off around the deck of the Charles de Gaulle, France's 262-metre nuclear aircraft carrier.
Seven kilometres later, he'd done his cardio. He'd also, accidentally, told the entire internet exactly where the nuclear-powered warship was hiding.
According to French Armed Forces General Staff: "The post was not in compliance with current instructions on digital security."
French newspaper Le Monde broke the story on Thursday (via Anadolu Ajansı), reporting that the officer's public Strava profile had broadcast his GPS location in near real time. The paper then confirmed the breach the old-fashioned way: satellite imagery taken shortly after the jog clearly showed the distinctive silhouette of the carrier parked northwest of Cyprus, about 100 kilometres off the Turkish coast. Case closed. Carrier found.
The timing was, shall we say, not ideal. The Charles de Gaulle had been deployed to the region on March 3, days after the start of US-Israeli strikes on Iran. This was not exactly a low-stakes pleasure cruise.
To their credit, the French military responded with admirable bureaucratic calmness, confirming the breach and promising that "appropriate measures will be taken by the command."