Navy Tells Sailors to ‘Beware’ of Dating Apps, Button-Up Social Media Amid Iran Conflict
20th April 2026
The Navy is telling sailors to lock down their phones and social media accounts as online threats increase during the current conflict with Iran. Officials said that “adversary cyber actors” are increasingly targeting sailors online with a wide range of hack attempts and psychological operations.
The message even says to “??beware” of dating apps that share too much personal information.
The April 17 Navy-wide notice recommended that Navy personnel set their accounts to the “highest level” of privacy on social media, turn off their phone’s location tracking, microphone, and camera use, and scrub search engines like Google of personal information.
“In response to Operation Epic Fury, adversary cyber actors are conducting a social engineering campaign actively targeting Department of the Navy (DON) personnel and their families via spear phishing and social media contacts. These actors seek to psychologically influence DON personnel and their families, and also seek to trick personnel into clicking on/opening potentially malicious links and files,” officials wrote in the NAVADMIN.