2021年6月，荷兰海军“埃弗岑”号护卫舰的船员出现在乌克兰南部敖德萨港的甲板上。荷兰地方广播机构 Omroep Gelderland 近日透露，他们通过向该舰发送带蓝牙追踪器的军事邮件，成功实时追踪到了这艘防空护卫舰。当时，该舰正作为法国“戴高乐”号航母打击群的一部分部署在地中海。
该机构在其网站上称，追踪器在船上分拣邮件时被发现，但此时该机构已经追踪了该舰24小时。荷兰国防部对此表示，正在采取针对性措施。此前，《世界报》于3月报道称，通过跑步和骑行应用 Strava 的数据，能够定位一名在海上的“戴高乐”号航母甲板上进行7公里跑步的法国官员。
内梅亨大学国家安全法助理教授罗文·詹森向媒体表示：“你肯定希望能够拦截此类追踪器。商业卫星图像目前之所以延迟发布是有原因的，你绝对不想让恐怖分子通过发送类似包裹轻松追踪舰艇位置，否则将面临被导弹袭击的风险。”
该广播机构描述称，他们根据国防部关于如何向军事人员邮寄邮件的在线说明，使用军事邮政服务将这种用于寻找钥匙的蓝牙追踪器装入信封寄给护卫舰。尽管国防部会通过X射线扫描检查禁用品，但该机构注意到在线视频显示信封有时未被扫描，因此决定将追踪器藏在明信片中。
Crew members of the frigate Evertsen are seen on deck at the port of Odesa, southern Ukraine, in June 2021. (Yulii Zozulia/ Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images)PARIS — Dutch regional broadcaster Omroep Gelderland was able to track the Royal Netherlands Navy air-defense frigate Evertsen in real time by sending a Bluetooth tracker to the ship by military mail. The frigate is part of the carrier strike group around France’s Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier currently deployed in the Mediterranean Sea.The tracker was discovered while sorting mail on board, though only after Omroep Gelderland had been tracking the Evertsen for 24 hours, the broadcaster wrote on its website on Thursday. The Dutch Ministry of Defence said it’s taking measures in response, according to the broadcaster.The tracker incident comes after a Le Monde reported in March it was able to locate a French officer taking a 7-kilometer run around the deck of the Charles de Gaulle while the carrier was at sea, through data from the officer’s connected watch via the running and cycling app Strava.“You do want to be able to intercept such a tracker,” Rowin Jansen, assistant professor of national security law at Radboud University in Nijmegen, told Omroep Gelderland. “Commercial satellite images are currently released with a delay for good reason. You certainly don’t want to make it easy for terrorists to send a similar package and track a ship’s location in real time. You then run the risk of having missiles fired at you.”The broadcaster described sending the Bluetooth tracker, a gadget used for example to find keys, to the frigate in an envelope using the military postal service, following online instructions from the MoD on how to send mail to military personnel.While the ministry checks whether prohibited or dangerous items are sent by mail by X-ray scanning packages, Omroep Gelderland noted that online videos showed envelops not being scanned, so decided to pack the tracker in a postcard, with the gadget going undetected and simply mailed.“In a large-scale conflict, everyone needs to ask themselves: What can I contribute to the safety of our men and women?” said retired Lt. Gen. Mart de Kruif, as cited by the broadcaster. “So you should no longer rely on existing rules, but on what is necessary. We’re still a bit naive, and that mindset needs to change.”Omroep Gelderland mapped the route of the tracker from the Dutch naval base in Den Helder to Eindhoven Airport, and then on to the port of Heraklion in Crete, where webcam images showed the Evertsen moored at the quay.With the frigate departing the port on March 27, the broadcaster said it was able to track the vessel sailing west along the coast of Crete before setting an eastward course. The tracker then went permanently offline 24 hours later near Cyprus, it said.The MoD has made adjustments in response to the reported incident, including no longer allowing greeting cards with batteries to be sent to the Evertsen, and the
