The Dutch air defense frigate HNLMS Evertsen, part of a NATO carrier strike group, was tracked using a standard postcard concealing a Bluetooth tracker. The vessel was escorting the French aircraft carrier “Charles de Gaulle” in the Mediterranean Sea, tasked with safeguarding the formation against potential missile threats.
It emerged that a journalist from the Dutch regional broadcaster Omroep Gelderland, Just Vervaart, utilized official Ministry of Defence instructions, publicly accessible, to dispatch a postcard equipped with a disguised tracker to the ship. While the department aimed to facilitate easier communication between service members and their families and friends by posting detailed guidelines for sending letters and parcels, they failed to consider that this information could be exploited against the ship itself.
The tracker functioned for approximately 24 hours. During this period, the frigate’s route was successfully monitored: it departed the port of Heraklion in Crete, proceeded along the island’s west coast, and subsequently set a course toward Cyprus. The device ceased transmission when the ship was already near Cyprus. According to a source, the tracker was discovered during the sorting of mail aboard and was subsequently deactivated.
This incident highlighted the potential vulnerability of seemingly innocuous items such as postcards, letters, and consumer electronics. In this instance, the loophole exploited was that packages underwent X-ray inspection, whereas envelopes and postcards did not. Following this, Dutch authorities commenced a review of postal regulations for military personnel and are reportedly planning to prohibit greeting cards containing batteries and to tighten scrutiny over all correspondence.
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