The man who leaked classified US intelligence documents that led to a national security investigation is a young gun enthusiast in his 20s who worked at a military base where he had access to such documents, The Washington Post said, citing members of the online – a discussion group that the alleged author also used, Reuters reports.

The young man posted classified documents to a group on the Discord messaging platform of about 25 men and boys who shared a “common passion for guns, military equipment and God,” according to The Washington Post, which wrote its article, which did not identify individuals. individual – based on discussions with two members of the popular gaming platform Discord.

“He is strong, he is armed”

The young man was known by the nickname OG, which is slang for Original Gangster or Old School Traditionalist. One source for The Washington Post put him between 20 and 25 years old, and according to the same source, he was valued by members of the group.

• “He is physically well prepared. That’s strong. He is armed. He is trained. About what you can expect from a crazy movie,” said a member of the platform, who spoke on condition of anonymity, with the permission of his mother, given that he is not yet 18 years old, according to the American publication.

In what appears to be the worst leak of classified US documents in years, photos of sensitive documents have been shared on Discord and other platforms, including the online messaging app 4Chan, the encrypted global messaging app Telegram and Twitter.

In a statement released Wednesday, the Discord platform announced that it is cooperating with law enforcement.

We recall that last week the Department of Justice opened a formal criminal investigation after the case was transferred to the Pentagon, which is assessing the damage caused by what could turn out to be the worst leak of classified US information in years. US national security agencies and the Justice Department are investigating the leaks to assess the damage to national security and relations with US allies and other countries, including Ukraine.

The allegedly classified information was first leaked in January on a Discord server

Earlier this week, The Guardian reported that highly classified Pentagon information was first leaked in player chats hosted by Discord amid the Ukraine war controversy.

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 a security review process, The Guardian reports.

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