The IDF is moving to curb sensitive military information leaking onto social media by rolling out a new monitoring system called ‘Morpheus.’ The AI-based tool, developed inside the military, will soon track photos and other content posted by IDF soldiers on civilian social media platforms, according to a report Wednesday.
In the defense establishment, it is now widely understood that the detailed profiles of bases and communities Hamas terrorists infiltrated on October 7 were built largely by painstakingly gathering open-source information that had accumulated on social networks.
According to the report, the system uses artificial intelligence to analyze in real time what active duty soldiers upload to public social media accounts. Any sign of a security breach, such as a video filmed inside a base, a classified location, or sensitive weapons or equipment, will trigger an immediate alert to the IDF’s information security officers. Those officers will review each case individually and, if needed, contact the soldier and instruct them to delete the content at once. At a later stage, the system is expected to send automatic warning messages directly to soldiers’ mobile phones.
In its first phase, ‘Morpheus’ will monitor only about 170,000 active duty soldiers who maintain public accounts, and will not track reservists. The initiative is still undergoing advanced legal approval processes inside the IDF.
A pilot version has been operating in recent months, monitoring roughly 45,000 soldiers. The experimental system flagged thousands of cases of dangerous content and information security violations.
The IDF acknowledges that the new program stretches privacy norms, but argues it is necessary given the cumulative intelligence damage caused by unchecked social media leaks.