A court martial heard the case this summer and the soldier was demoted, but it is still not known whether criminals or a foreign intelligence service hacked the phone.

Corporal Daniel Barton-Kennedy was briefed before deploying to Estonia to remove his phone's SIM card for the whole stay, was told again after arriving at Tapa for the Eastern Warrior exercise in January 2026, but ignored the order.

Second Lieutenant Kristjan-Hendrik Paavo, of the Estonian Defense Forces general staff, said every SIM card carries a unique identifier that can be used to locate its user, or their unit.

British Army intelligence officer Captain Farthing told the court what a hacked phone could reveal, including capabilities, locations, movements and readiness of troops on NATO's eastern flank.

Barton-Kennedy's phone was hacked, nude photographs of him were found in its gallery, and the blackmail began; he paid £100, the next demand was £250, and on January 19 he told his platoon commander, who informed the intelligence officer.

"I understood that I had a duty to report the hacking immediately," he told the court.

The risk is not abstract: Ukrainian missiles struck a building housing Russian soldiers in Makiivka in January 2023, killing 89, and Russia's defense ministry said unauthorized phone use had revealed the target, while the U.S. Army warned in 2017 that blackmail over sexual material can extend beyond money to military information and access.

On July 3 Barton-Kennedy pleaded guilty at the court at Catterick in North Yorkshire, England, to failing to obey an order, did not dispute that the order was lawful, and was demoted and ordered to complete a 10-month retraining program.

The court noted his rank made the offense more serious as he was supposed to ensure others followed the rules, adding "when such a breach comes to light, it is important that the punishment imposed deters other military personnel serving in similar circumstances"; an appeal was dismissed at the end of the summer, while the court stated that it is not yet known whether the blackmailing was the work of a foreign intelligence agency or simply criminal activity.

The original Eesti Ekspress story is here.

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