An adversary could transform the digital footprints created by modern smartphones into grid coordinates, which can then be used to target U.S. troops with deadly precision, the head of U.S. Special Operations Command warned recently.

Read The Washington Times‘ coverage of this topic in their article, “The danger of digital footprints: How ‘ubiquitous technical surveillance’ threatens U.S. military,” where Veilant’s Erik Wittreich, CEO of Veilant, provided his perspective on this topic.

For military leaders and defense industry insiders, an important piece of the puzzle is determining what kinds of data a future adversary could find valuable. What may not seem important today could, several years from now, become a critical piece of information that a potential enemy could use to identify or locate specific individuals, units or teams.

“Data persists forever,” said Erik Wittreich, CEO of Veilant, a multidomain technology company that specializes in helping military outfits and government agencies control their digital footprints and manage potential sensitive data exposure.

“What may not be valuable today costs very little to retain and store, and it might be the missing piece to an operation in the future,” he told The Washington Times in an interview on the SOF Week conference floor.