Pentagon Leaks: How a video game chatroom is at the heart of the massive US intelligence leak

The United States is on a mending spree, trying to placate allies after a cache of over 100 documents were leaked on various social media platforms, including Twitter and Telegram. The US has been left red-faced as highly-classified documents, some even marked Top Secret, were released on social media. The US has begun a probe into the Pentagon leak , with John Kirby, spokesperson for the National Security Council, saying, “We don’t know who is behind this; we don’t know what the motive is. We don’t know what else might be out there.” The documents had closely held information such as Ukraine’s position in the war , potential problems with ammunition supplies and even the losses sustained by Russia in the ongoing war. Besides this, the documents also revealed that Washington was spying on its allies — Israel and South Korea . Officials say the leaks represent Washington’s worst national security breach in many years and it will take a lot for the nation to build up its credibility again. But even as the American administration deals with repercussions of the leaks, it is interesting to note that before they surfaced on Twitter or Telegram, they emerged at the most unlikely of places — video game-focused chat servers, especially one devoted to the famous video game Minecraft. Discord — where it all began Bellingcat, an open source intelligence research firm tracking the Pentagon leaks, stated that before the documents found their way on Twitter and Telegram, they appeared on a Minecraft Discord server. For the unaware, Minecraft is a virtual world made of blocks where players can explore, create and fight off monsters whereas Discord is a platform where users chat about games, investing and other topics in mostly private, invitation-only groups called servers. Based in San Francisco, Discord has approximately 150 million monthly users worldwide — much smaller than social media giants Facebook and TikTok. Launched in 2015, Discord is one of the most popular ways that gamers communicate online. In addition to chatting while playing games, friends use Discord to watch movies and do homework together. It was most recently valued at $14.7 billion (Rs 1.2 lakh crore), according to PitchBook, a market data provider. However, before the leaks, it had come under the scanner in 2017 when it was accused of being used by sex predators to share child pornography and communicate with minors. [caption id=“attachment_12438162” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Launched in 2015, Discord is one of the most popular ways that gamers communicate online. Reuters[/caption] According to Bellingcat, the leaked documents emerged in the chat after some light-hearted exchanges between users. Tracing the leaks, Bellingcat reports that on 4 March, 10 documents were posted in a Discord server called “Minecraft Earth Map”. According to their investigations, it all started after a brief spat with another person on the server about Minecraft Maps and the war in Ukraine. One of the Discord users replied, “Here, have some leaked documents” — and then attached 10 documents about the Ukraine war, some bearing ‘Top Secret’ markings. The person who shared these documents told the investigation firm that he found them posted by another user on a Discord server called WowMao, run by and for fans of a popular YouTuber of the same name. And that’s not the end of it. Bellingcat reports that even before documents leaked on the WowMao server, there were documents as early as 13 January on another server called Thug Shaker Central. Sources told Bellingcat that Thug Shaker Central was filled with many more classified documents than WowMao, though that claim couldn’t be independently verified. The documents lay dormant on the servers for about a month after which they were shared last week on 4chan and Telegram, where they received greater attention. It was after this that the New York Times picked the subject and it became worldwide news. Aric Toler, who investigated the Discord leaks for Bellingcat, wrote in an email to CyberScoop, “This is just a guy in a tiny Discord server sharing hundreds of insanely sensitive [files] with his gaming buddies.”

A worry for the US The leaks pose as a serious embarrassment to the US. In fact, a high-ranking Pentagon official said the documents were “a very serious risk to national security and have the potential to spread disinformation”. “We’re still investigating how this happened, as well as the scope of the issue,” said Chris Meagher, the assistant to the secretary of defence for public affairs. The Pentagon added that it was reassessing their process as to who gets access to such sensitive documents. Discord in a statement said it is currently cooperating with law enforcement to investigate the breach. “It is Discord’s highest priority to ensure a safe experience for our users. When we are made aware of content that violates our policies, our safety team investigates and takes the appropriate action, including banning users, shutting down servers, and engaging with law enforcement,” a spokesperson for Discord wrote to Kotaku in an email. “Our dedicated safety team uses a mix of proactive and reactive tools to keep activity that violates our policies off the service, including advanced technology like machine learning models, equipping and empowering community moderators to uphold our policies and community guidelines, and providing in-service reporting mechanisms. Our team also proactively takes additional measures based on wider platform trends or intelligence they receive.” However, the damage has been done. Cybersecurity experts note that the leaks were different from those in the past and reveal just how easy it is to disseminate classified information. [caption id=“attachment_12438262” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] The US documents leak is shaping up to be one of the most damaging in decades. File image/Reuters[/caption] Gavin Wilde, a Carnegie Endowment expert who previously worked in the White House and at the National Security Agency, told Vox the documents expose the contradiction between the incredible intelligence-gathering capacity of US agencies and their apparent sloppiness in handling sensitive information. “It’s just the latest indication that the intelligence bureaucracy is both remarkably adept and remarkably inept in this new misinformation environment. The way we think about counterintelligence clearly needs to be more coherent.” He added to CyberScoop, “The idea of paying a source to dead-drop this stuff when it’s popping up unsolicited on Minecraft and world of tanks seems quaint.” Not the first time Incidentally, this is hardly the first time the gaming community has leaked classified military documents. Forums connected to War Thunder, a video game dedicated to military vehicles, in 2022 saw instances where players leaked weapon schematics — there were leaked details about Britain’s Challenger 2 tank, and later even on a Chinese tank. With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.