Who leaked the Pentagon papers? How gamer chatrooms became a hotbed of classified government documents

In popular culture, gamers are often cast in much maligned, geeky stereotype, spending hours in front of screens, swapping game tactics with online friends. Yet in recent years, dedicated chatrooms affiliated with online gaming have become hotbeds of leaked government information, which could pose devastating consequences for national security.

Over the Easter weekend, Bellingcat, a British investigative journalism website, found the Pentagon files that were leaked last week originated on Discord, a social media platform popular with gamers.

The US national press reported an unidentified gamer started uploading ostensibly stolen files to the platform, which hosts voice, video and text chats in real time.

Images of presentation slides and documents appeared, with creases in them, suggesting they had been folded – perhaps in an effort to smuggle them out undetected.

Bellingcat reported it had seen evidence to suggest some documents, which dated to January, could have been posted online earlier, although it is unclear when. They also spoke to users of Discord, where the images had been posted, who said more files had been shared across different servers recently.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby provided updates on the documents leak investigation on Monday (Photo: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)

The channels were deleted, however, so it has not been possible for this to be verified.

Aric Toler, director of training and research at Bellingcat, believes the link between gaming and leaking classified information is “incidental”.

“[The user] was just leaking these documents to impress his dozen or two buddies, who happened to be in a gaming server,” he told i. “It could have been a WhatsApp group or Twitter DM group chat just as easily as a Discord group.”

However, the files that appeared in March were posted on servers focusing on discussion around Minecraft, a popular computer game with a global cult following, and threads on WowMao, a Filipino YouTube celebrity.

They then spread to other sites including 4Chan before appearing on Telegram and Twitter.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the latest breach isn’t the first of allegedly classified documents surfacing on a gaming-related server.

In 2022, a fan of WarThunder, the military vehicle combat game, posted genuine classified information on the British Challenger 2 tanks; a year before, another user uploaded a classified manual for the French Leclerc tanks.

The New York Times first reported five images of files relating to the war in Ukraine were found circulating on Russian Telegram channels last week, though they were dated to March.

The images could be one the most damaging leaks in decades and sparked a US Justice Department investigation. The leaked documents apparently contain information that could compromise the Ukrainian army’s spring offensive, and reveal timely details about Nato’s assistance to Kyiv.

They also appear to include an analysis of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine up until March this year, and statements suggesting Ukraine will have run short of S-300 anti-air missiles by 2 May, limiting their ability to hold off Russian forces.

However, Ukrainian officials have voiced their doubts about the authenticity of the posts. The adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Mykhailo Podolyak, stated on Telegram he believes the documents are not genuine, and are based on “a large amount of fictitious information” spread by Russia.

On Wednesday last week, the documents were posted through Telegram channels operated by pro-Russian users, and appear to have been doctored. Documents were altered to increase the number of Ukrainian casualties while reducing Russian losses.

Mr Toler disputes the leaks originated with Russian agents. “Everyone saying it’s a Russian leak has no grasp of the leak and its chronology,” he said. “Some Russian Telegram channel modified some casualty figures on one document on April 5 – that’s about it with nefarious Russian actions.”

It is still unclear whether any government was involved in obtaining and sharing the files.

Nevertheless, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has implemented new measures to crack down on leaks of military information. The US has also changed how documents are accessed by military staff.

The New York Times reported clues left online may assist investigators in quickly narrowing down the number of possible suspects. The materials seem to have been photographed and then uploaded in an amateur fashion, suggesting IP addresses used or the date stamps from photographs were not concealed.

The US Government was asked on Monday if they were concerned more classified documents would appear online. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby replied: “The truth and the honest answer to your question is: We don’t know.

“And is that a matter of concern to us? You’re darn right it is.”

https://inews.co.uk/news/world/pentagon-papers-leaked-who-gamer-chatrooms-classified-government-documents-2267662

Related Posts