A New Zealand man thought to have been fighting with the Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) inadvertently revealed his precise location by posting geotagged tweets, a security researcher revealed.
Abu Abdul-Rahman, also known as Mark Taylor, left New Zealand to join the fight with ISIS in May 2012. Soon after, he tweeted that his mission to Syria was a “one-way trip” that featured a picture of his burned passport, the Guardian reports.
Taylor has since deleted 45 tweets after learning that they were geotagged with his precise coordinates. Security researcher Jeff Wyers, who runs an open-source intelligence group called iBrado, used the tweet geo-location information to place Taylor in a specific house in the Syrian town of al-Taqbah.
Since he first traveled to Syria, Taylor has reportedly been in touch with the New Zealand passport office to get a replacement travel document but hasn’t heard back.
[Guardian]
Read next: ISIS Executed Almost 2,000 People in Syria Over the Past Six Months
Get The Brief. Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now.
Listen to the most important stories of the day.
- Florence Pugh Might Just Save the Movie Star From Extinction
- Why You Can't Remember That Taylor Swift Concert All Too Well
- What to Know About the History of the Debt Ceiling
- 10 Questions the Succession Finale Needs to Answer
- How Four Trans Teens Threw the Prom of Their Dreams
- Why Turkey’s Longtime Leader Is an Electoral Powerhouse
- The Ancient Roots of Psychotherapy
- Why Rich People Aren't Using Phone Cases
