Confidential Pentagon information was first leaked in player chats hosted on Discord during the controversy over the war in Ukraine, according to open-source intelligence analysts. Guardian.

The origin of the leak may seem unusual and strange, but this is far from the first time a dispute between gamers has resulted in a data leak, causing problems for both the military and gaming platforms.

The classified information was first leaked on the Discord server in January

The existence of such information was exposed when documents began to circulate on public social media last week indicating approximate casualties during the fighting in Bakhmut.

Two versions of these documents, one of which was digitally altered to understate the number of Russian casualties and overestimate the number of Ukrainian casualties, began to circulate among observers of the war. One of the documents with the correct numbers came from a leak on the 4chan forum that spawned the far-right “alt-right” movement.

At the same time, a second package of documents, including a redacted image, began to circulate on pro-Russian Telegram channels.

However, none of them were original sources. Before appearing on the great public Internet, the documents were shared in Discord chats, a chat program for video game enthusiasts. On a server called “Minecraft Earth Map”, 10 documents were published back on March 4, a month before they appeared on 4chan.

“After a short heated discussion with another person on the server about Minecraft Maps and the war in Ukraine, one of the Discord users responded, “Look, some documents are leaking,” adding 10 documents about Ukraine, some of which were labeled “top secret.” ” said Arik Toler, an analyst at Bellingcat Research Group.

That user, in turn, found them on another Discord server run by fans of Filipino YouTuber WowMao, where 30 documents were posted three days ago, along with “dozens” of other unverified documents about Ukraine. Even that wasn’t the original source, though: a third Discord server, called “Thug Shaker Central” among others, may have been where the documents were originally posted back in mid-January.

“Posts and channel listings show that users of the server were interested in video games, music, Orthodox Christianity and fandom ((a fan culture with shared interests) for the popular YouTuber Oxide,” Toler said, referring to the military-themed YouTube channel.

“This server was not particularly geopolitical in nature, although its users took a fairly conservative stance on several issues. Racial slurs and racist memes were widely shared,” Bellingcat members reported.

The car combat simulator War Thunder is known for a large number of leaks

While the scale and sensitivity of the leaks are significant, this isn’t the first time intelligence services have been hacked following a discussion between gamers. One game in particular, the combat simulator War Thunder, has become infamous for the large number of leaks associated with it, The Guardian notes.

The game, which has a reputation for accuracy, has 70 million users worldwide, which has led to regular disputes over balance and accuracy – resulting in users committing security breaches on at least 10 separate occasions since 2020, often by publishing classified documents about active weapons capabilities in trying to justify the need to improve the digital version of the car.

In October 2021, for example, secret design details were released for the French Leclerc tank, which wins the turret rotation speed argument.

In July 2021, a user who identified himself as a British Army tank commander published documents about the vehicle’s armor structure to win the argument.

In January of this year, four different users published design documents for at least five different fighters.

The game became such a mirror of intelligence failures that the military company Raytheon was forced to deny reports that it had been specifically asked about War Thunder as part of the security review process, writes The Guardian.

The New York Times reported Thursday that the Pentagon is investigating how documents detailing plans to build up the Ukrainian military for a planned counteroffensive this spring were posted on social media.

Are the leaks real?

U.S. intelligence agencies are taking the leak seriously, prompting an investigation into the leaks, and the U.S. Department of Defense released a statement saying it “continues to review and evaluate documents shared on social media that contain classified information.” and top secret materials,” The Guardian reports.

However, some of the material that appeared on Russian channels appears to have been altered, in particular the number of victims of the conflict in Ukraine on both sides, in order to minimize Russian losses and increase Ukrainian losses.

Details in other documents are disputed by other countries, including claims that French soldiers took part in operations in Ukraine.

This can indicate many things. First, the information is not reliable and may reflect only what US agencies think they know. Denials from other countries mentioned in the materials may simply be a case of lying out of embarrassment. At least some materials can be manipulated to misinform.

On the latter point, Chris Meagher, a Pentagon spokesman, urged caution in “promoting or expanding on any of these documents,” adding that “the information appears to have been tampered with.”

Will the information affect Ukraine, and Kyiv downplays the effect of the information leak?

The greatest attention was paid to documents related to Ukraine. While Ukrainian officials tried to downplay the content, suggesting it might be disinformation and emphasizing that it did not contain specific battle plans for its spring offensive, the material generally reflected what many had suspected: that Ukrainian casualties could be higher, than recognized, and that Kyiv is using munitions for various systems at sometimes exhausting rates, raising the question of how long it will last.

Ukraine was forced to change some of its military plans after the leak of classified Pentagon documents, a source close to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi told CNN.

However, the chief adviser to the President of Ukraine, Mykhailo Podolyak, believes that the documents “have nothing to do with the real plans of Ukraine” and are based on “a large amount of fabricated information” spread by Russia.

The leak of secret documents detailing secret US and NATO plans to aid Kiev appears to be a disinformation operation by Russia to sow doubts about a planned counteroffensive against Ukraine, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukraine’s president, said on Friday, Reuters reported.

Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC), Oleksiy Danilov, who last week said that no more than five people know where and when the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will begin, claims that part of the information in the Pentagon Papers, which was leaked to the Internet, “is completely were not secret”

“You can find it in publicly available sources,” said Oleksiy Danilov in a Sunday interview with journalist Vasyl Holod from the German broadcaster ARD. According to Danilov, Ukraine is in constant contact with its key allies, such as the USA, Great Britain, Germany and Poland.

“Data for carrying out certain operations, the number of units, who is involved and in what direction – this information is an absolute secret. If someone thinks that it exists, I can only congratulate them. But I do not know where I could get it.” – he said.

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