With Pakistan resorting to social media to trap Indian services personnel to gather sensitive intelligence,  the Army has issued an advisory to all its personnel to change their WhatsApp settings to make sure they are not automatically added to any group.  This caution comes weeks after the Army warned its officers and men to be beware of fake spiritual gurus trying to entice them through social media.

The latest advisory comes after an Indian Army officer was reportedly added to a group by a Pakistan based mobile number. As per the advisory, the alert officer showed the presence of mind, took a screenshot of the group and exited it. It noted that there had been attempts to target Army personnel on messaging apps such as WhatsApp in the past. Thereafter, it listed the steps to change the WhatsApp settings to avoid such incidents in the future, sources said here on Friday.

Some days back the Army had warned officers holding sensitive posts in operational areas, all headquarters, divisions and brigades to stop using Whats App for official communicable as it was vulnerable platform.

The advisory also noted that social media website Facebook could be used for collecting intelligence and personnel were advised to refrain from using their Facebook accounts, sources said here on Friday.

Amongst other precautions to be taken, officers and men were advised not to upload their pictures in uniform or discus about their posting, officials said adding even the families of those posted in sensitive areas were also cautioned to refrain from talking about the whereabouts of their family members serving in the armed forces.

Moreover, the armed forces have been asked not to link their Gmail accounts to multiple applications as that could compromise information on the email account. 

Recently, the Army warned its jawans and officers to be alert as fake spiritual gurus and babas are reaching out to personnel in an attempt to seek military information. The Army has also issued an advisory to its personnel cautioning them about fake social media sites as nearly 150 such sites used by Pakistan Intelligence Officers has come to light.

 Issuing this warning, the Army also alerted its personnel from refraining unknown social media sites that are being used by adversaries for honey trap to extract sensitive information, sources said.

Elaborating upon the threat posed by fake spiritual gurus and babas, they said these persons through the social media try to trap gullible and vulnerable soldiers undergoing some issues thereby depressed and their families.  After gaining their confidence over a time, these so-called gurus then try to seek information about movement of troops and other sensitive military information.

 Explaining the modus operandi about the Pakistani intelligence officers using the fake sites, officials said families of the soldiers are also targeted and sometimes they may inadvertently given information about the posting of their relatives.

 The threat is more prominent in civil areas with the army coming in contact with the public and the men in uniform may give out sensitive information.

  Some of the fake identities pose as nurses or claim to be from the Army Headquarters seeking details about the whereabouts the personnel from their families.

The fake profiles are generally 2-3 years old. So, they do not raise suspicion and appear to be authentic. It is then that they started targeting, officials added.