Politics
Weaponized infrastructure: The overlooked digital threat to US forces
We no longer live in a world where the most dangerous breach begins with a bullet or a bomb. Today, it begins with a line of code executed silently, invisibly, in a system most Americans never think to question.
Cyberattacks against U.S. military infrastructure are escalating not just in volume, but in sophistication and strategic intent. Our analysis of attack patterns from June 2025 paints a troubling picture: Adversaries are using the digital ecosystem not merely to disrupt, but to surveil. And they’re doing so by exploiting the very platforms our armed forces use every day, from public Wi-Fi to embedded scripts on popular websites.
A spike that demands attention
Pat Ciavolella, digital security and operations director at The Media Trust, identified that on June 18, the day President Trump announced the possibility of U.S. involvement in Iran, attacks on U.S. military bases surged by 616% over the previous day. He further explained that backdoor attempts comprised the majority at 57% and another 41% came via phishing vectors. These aren’t isolated threats from rogue hackers. They are coordinated, layered incursions designed to extract operational intelligence without detection.
Source: The Media Trust
What’s more revealing is the target breakdown. The Air Force and Navy bore the brunt of these intrusions. Not the Army. Not interagency hubs. This isn’t coincidental. It’s strategic.
Source: The Media Trust
Air and naval forces are the branches most associated with rapid mobility and equipment deployment — two of the clearest signals that military action may be imminent. Where aircraft are sent, where ships are moved, where logistics ramp up, those data points tell a story. And our adversaries are listening.
The digital theater of war is already active
Simultaneously, we observed a near doubling of attack volume on June 21 and 22 across Israel, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt. While attribution remains ongoing, the correlation suggests broader geopolitical monitoring. Taken together with the U.S. base activity, the data implies that nation-state actors are mapping not only movement, but coordination — tracking how regional and allied forces prepare, position and respond.
Source: The Media Trust
Surveillance by design
Unlike ransomware or financial theft, these attacks are not about causing chaos. They’re about creating clarity. Accessing login portals, harvesting metadata, cataloging device fingerprints, and leveraging hidden trackers on legitimate websites: All of these techniques enable adversaries to infer intent and timeline, even in the absence of classified material.
The tools are mundane. But that’s the genius. Malicious actors exploit what we’ve normalized: advertising networks, embedded JavaScript, third-party plugins. These are the scaffolding of the commercial web, and they provide an ideal attack surface.
Traditional cybersecurity isn’t built to detect this kind of exploitation. Antivirus software doesn’t flag a compromised weather widget. Endpoint protections don’t see the keystroke logger nested inside a video player. Military cybersecurity defends networks and machines. But adversaries have pivoted to a different target: the people using them.
The blurred line between civilian and combatant
This digital exposure is not a personnel failure. It is a design failure born from the fact that modern devices, apps and platforms are built for engagement, not defense. The same ecosystem that tracks consumers for ad targeting now exposes our warfighters to surveillance with national security consequences.
The devices themselves may be secured. But the platforms? The content? The invisible third-party code that rides along with every app and website? That’s the real vulnerability.
And it’s one that government agencies, policymakers and platform providers have yet to meaningfully confront.
The path forward is a policy challenge, not just a technical one
For too long, digital surveillance has been treated as a consumer privacy issue. But when the same infrastructure used to sell sneakers and insurance can be turned into an intelligence-gathering weapon, we have crossed into a new domain. It demands national security urgency.
We need to evolve our defensive posture accordingly.
- Declare sensitive digital environments as protected data territories, such as military bases, federal buildings and contractor zones.
- Establish operational security (OPSEC) standards for digital behavior across all devices used by service members and government personnel, both official and personal.
- Create interagency frameworks that unify cyber defense efforts across the departments of Defense and Homeland Security, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the intelligence community — not just around known malware, but around behavioral and content-based targeting.
- Redefine “threat detection” to include the digital signals embedded in content delivery, not just executable files.
These are not technology recommendations. They are strategic necessities.
A final warning
The breach no longer comes through the front gate. It comes through a browser tab. Through a pop-up ad. Through an update prompt on a travel app. Through digital exhaust we’ve come to ignore.
The tools used to track consumers are now used to track troops and equipment. And until we confront this truth, our adversaries will keep gathering intelligence right under our noses — script by script, pixel by pixel.
The question is no longer whether we’re being watched. The question is: How much longer will we let it happen?
Chris Olson is the founder of Proxyware and The Media Trust.
The post Weaponized infrastructure: The overlooked digital threat to US forces first appeared on Federal News Network.
