The Israeli army is set to begin monitoring all conscript soldiers on social media, tracking their posts to ensure that no sensitive information is being revealed online.
Monitoring digital platforms
Israel’s Army Radio reported Wednesday that the military disclosed earlier this week how Hamas, before the October 7 attacks, managed to build an extensive intelligence apparatus based on information gathered for years from Israeli soldiers’ social media accounts.
In response, the army has decided to launch a wide-scale initiative to curb this vulnerability through a new artificial intelligence system called “Morfius.”
The system will track all soldiers’ accounts on social platforms and review every post they upload, including text, photos, and videos.
According to the report, the AI tool analyzes posts to determine whether they reveal sensitive information such as bases, military sites, classified weapons, or any other restricted details. When necessary, it flags cases to information security officers.
If a soldier publishes a post that violates security protocols, they will automatically receive a notification informing them of the breach and instructing them to delete the content.
In urgent cases, the soldier will receive a direct phone call from an information security officer.
The report added that the system is expected to receive all required legal approvals soon, with operations scheduled to begin in early December. It will be subject to two conditions: it will monitor only soldiers’ open and public accounts, not private ones, and it will oversee approximately 170 thousand public accounts belonging to Israeli soldiers.
The system reportedly will not monitor reservists, as they are civilians and such surveillance poses legal complications.
Thousands of flagged cases
According to the report, the Israeli army believes the step is necessary to safeguard information security and prevent the leakage of sensitive data, similar to what occurred before October 7.
During the past four months, a pilot version of the system has been operated, monitoring 45 thousand soldiers.
Military sources said the system flagged thousands of cases, prompting the information security department to contact soldiers and request that they delete their posts.
