MANILA, Philippines—The 25-day pushup challenge, the latest social media craze which challenges netizens to do 25 pushups a day for 25 days to raise mental health awareness, could bring online security risks, Philippine Army units had been warned.
A number of soldiers and officers in all three military branches had played along the craze, which also asks participants to tag colleagues and turn them on the challenge.
“Dedicated to the plight of retired and active soldiers struggling with mental problems. Even though they are no longer active soldiers, they continue fighting a silent and lifelong battle,” part of the challenge read.
The Army Signal Regiment, in an internal memo addressed to the Army commanding general on May 21, listed the possible risks posed by this social media trend. A copy of the memo distributed to a number of Army units was seen by INQUIRER.net.
The concerns raised by the regiment included:
- Posting of detailed information about a person, including jobs and offices, on social media exposes organizations to cybersecurity risks like whaling and phishing attacks that target high-profile employees to steal sensitive information from the organization. Exposing more personal information on social media could lead to identity theft and online fraud.
- Giving personal information about someone without consent is a breach of privacy.
- Communist rebels and terror groups could take advantage and track soldiers or officers and gather information about military personnel.
- Protecting personal information from exposure on social media helps reduce risks of identity theft, stalking, harassment and chances of being targeted.
Before deciding to join the craze, the regiment suggested that these should be considered:
- Change your Facebook settings. As much as possible, posts should not be made public. These should be viewed by a limited audience like one’s friends or a few people.
- Avoid posting personally identifiable information about others.
- Avoid posting your own personal information.
- Send personal messages to nominees for participation in the craze instead to avoid exposing personal data on social media.