News: 1584544512

What could possibly go wrong?

I'm fairly certain that this is more related to troops self isolating being given orders to "stay at home" via irregular methods and them then turning up to the base infecting people claiming they want the order directly face to face.

One doubts that this is going to be used while troops are in kit; they have far better equipment available.

Not for instant messaging they don't...

Or some dedicated mil-net version.

If standard the mind boggles. Isn't that a massive infosec risk?

No more so than email...

I sincerely, nay desperately, hope that the army doesn't convey orders via email either.

End to end encryption that the government can't crack?

Sounds like an upgrade to me.

"End to end encryption that the government can't crack?"

Don't worry, Facebook will slurp the keystrokes (purely for quality control purposes, of course, definitely not for targetted advertising) before passing the text to the encryption/transmission part of the app...

To be fair, targeted advertising is probably better than the usual military procurement process.

"Other forces being deployed to helmand, bought actual armoured vehicles instead of civie SUVs painted green"

Oh dear. Another example of not knowing the difference between a "civvie SUV" and military Wolfs. Or the difference between an armoured vehicle and a rapid response vehicle. What the military *should* have been buying is up to the military specification procedures.

The app that contravenes GDPR by sending all contact information back to the mothership...

Data leak tomorrow, SAS chatgroup member list found on the dark web!

I know WhatsApp was rolled out as a crisis measure in lots of places a few years back during bad flooding but those USP that it had then have been taken on by MS Teams, Google thing etc. Whether you loath Teams or not isn't relevant at least you can have some oversight and control of it unlike anything from Facebook.

If you have to use Teams on your mobile in a crisis then you won't be using it for long. You'd have hard time finding an app which hammers the battery as much as Teams.

Similar on a laptop - will be most CPU and memory hungry service you run...

The facebook app seems to be a bit of a battery hog, at least on iOS.

Leaking SAS names to the darkweb I'd class as similar to trying suicide by cop.

No further comment necessary.

Ammo resupply via Ammozon prime?

Some joker telling them to park tanks outside parliament?

No point. There's very few people there. Those that are will likely not be in a week's time.

Compared to the MoD logistics system that would be a dream. You could actually get things the next day.

Actually no need for those last three words.

V. witty Wilde. Have an e-beer.

We need to learn from zombie apocalypse movies. World War Z, partly filmed in Glasgow, showed North Korea alone survived the zombie apocalypse because the dictator had everyone else's teeth removed.The vector of disease transmission there was biting by teeth.

The vector of disease transmission here is kids touching their faces with their hands.

So instead of killing all the kids, we just amputate their hands.

Or gloves. Gloves could work.

We need to learn from zombie apocalypse movies.

What exactly do we need to learn? Never go to Glasgow?

How is touching your face with dirty gloves better than with dirty hands?

> How is touching your face with dirty gloves better than with dirty hands?

Good point. Amputation it is then.

Or superglue applied to the nostrils - kids can't then touch anything else

The missus pointed this out to some random guy in the supermarket after she'd watched him touch his face about six times whilst browsing the aisle - it didn't go down well with said numpty.

Maybe the answer is homemade "space helmets" from large goldfish bowls, like you always wanted to do as an eight year old?

what we learn is ALWAYS DOUBLE TAP !!!

And we could amputate there faces, much more practal

"So instead of killing all the kids, we just amputate their hands.

Or gloves. Gloves could work."

Why would you want to amputate their gloves?

"The Register verified from the full screenshot (not published) that the WhatsApp order was posted on the internal Defence Gateway intranet."

First off and somewhat worrying is that a person has access to this when they are no longer a member of the full time Army. FTRS or reserves probably shouldn't have access either. You sign the official secrets act for life and not just until you leave the initial employment period. The idiot that shared this info with you should look at the remaining people that worked at Bletchley Park who still to this day do not talk about what they did there. (You should visit, it's a very good day out and really brings home the efforts of all involved / make sure you visit the radio room first, on the right as you exit the main entrance. Awesome people there and just wow sets you up for the rest of the site if you have no idea about radio etc)

Disclosing internal military communication practice, not a good idea whatever the reason.

Finally using bloody WhatsApp? At least use Signal FFS or maybe Telegram. Fracking WhatsApp! Who the hell thought that was a good idea.

X forces member, they never had my personal mobile number and never will. That's what a work phone is for.

'FTRS or reserves probably shouldn't have access either.'

Pretty hard doing all the mandatory online training without access to the Defence Gateway. Also given the classification of information that it can hold the person who sent the screenshot either didn't break the Official Secrets Act, or the person who put it on the Defence Gateway also did.

That's not to say a disciplinary case isn't warranted but that's got nothing to do with the OSA.

I had to read a long way down before finding the 1st post that mentioned some of the options available, that were probably more sensible.

What should also be consider is Next Cloud. This has it's own add in messenger, is also available on Android and Iphone/Pad. Plus, it can be run on their own servers. (if they have not been farmed out to 3rd party US firms)

Maybe Whatsapp will only be used for non classified orders?

Fun fact: the OSA is an Act, this it is legally binding regardless of whether or not you actually signed it. Signing is just a reminder; a formality to hammer home the importance of OPSEC.

With all due respect to a man who can certainly bury me in any physical fitness test he should care to mention, how is it that a Sergeant Major is in charge of defining Army protocol ?

Isn't that the charge of generals, or something ?

Sergeant Major of The Army, I think.

Slightly different beast.

Indeed :).

"The Army Sergeant Major is the most senior member of the other ranks of the British Army. Both appointment holders have actually been commissioned officers holding the rank of captain, although uniform and insignia similar to that of a warrant officer class 1 is worn while holding the appointment." Wikipedia

I believe that Sergeant Majors are employed to shout at people, so it makes sense that there would be a Head of Shouting at People somewhere in the army. You 'orrible little man, you.

Army SM is a newish role, the highest among the solider warrant officer ranks, therefore that makes him both high-ranking and competent (unlike a lot of officers), They are basically very experienced mature soldiers who act as advisors but do sometimes have a bit of a shout. Mostly at the senior ranks who then shout at the lower ranks.

Personally, I always avoided RSM's as much as possible and heard rumours that there existed a higher warrant officer role at the battalion / garrison level. Never really wanted to meet one to find out ;-)

Here's the new bloke in his non shouting mode; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRDKCQ4eSB4

Yep , one for each level of HQ. They are advisors to the Commander on matters enlisted, not shouty type SMs.

In Australia …

The RSM-A is responsible to the Chief of Army, but responsive to all ranks across Army. The RSM-A is a member of the personal staff of the Chief of Army. The RSM-A’s primary role is to represent to the Chief of Army, and others, the solicited and unsolicited views concerns and opinions of Soldiers in the Army, but also carry the Chief of Army’s message down and across the ranks.

Somehow we once ended up with an Ozzie RSM. He was a decent bloke often taking the piss out of the Rupert (officer) types. Only one problem, his liking of sports and the compulsory evening events which cut into our drinking time.

The story is about communications technology, shouting is the Army's preferred method of communications - so the chief shouty man is in charge of communication - QED

Our RSM was quite strict about drinking time. "Mess attendance is a manifestation of esprit de corps." ...

Even looks up to head honcho Sergeant Major of the Army.

Who'ld have thunk it!

Whatsapp??? At least they could use Signal - hey, it even sounds more military!

WhatsApp... great for group chats and crossing borders, but I will never understand what's wrong with text messages for one-one messages!