Gaming forums: the hotspot for data leaks and espionage?

The recent leak of Pentagon data was not an isolated incident, as video game forums have become a convenient alternative for intelligence gathering and recruitment. While many were surprised by the culprit, military officer Jack Teixeira, and the unusual location of the leak (a Discord server for the game Minecraft), similar incidents have occurred before. In fact, Liga.Tech has compiled a list of high-profile cases in which secret documents were leaked through video games, including sensitive information about military equipment in China, France, and Britain. This trend is concerning and highlights the need for greater security measures to prevent such leaks from occurring in the future.

Data leaks about tanks of the UK, France, and China

The MMO game War Thunder (WT) forum holds the top spot for the most "Top Secret" classified documents posted. The game is a military simulator that features various armored vehicles, aircraft, and ships from different countries and eras spanning from World War I to the present day. War Thunder was created and published by Gaijin Entertainment (GE), a Russian company that officially positions itself as a European company after transferring its headquarters to Budapest in 2015. However, GE's management still refers to the company as domestic or Russian in interviews with Russian media. 

In 2021, GE faced a scandal for promoting its products on the YouTube channel of a Russian mercenary who fought for occupiers in eastern Ukraine. Although the full-scale invasion commenced, GE announced that it was apolitical and would not take sides.

In July 2021, the first significant breach of military secrets in War Thunder occurred, causing a heated debate on the game's forum regarding the British Challenger 2 tank's characteristics. A player, who claimed to be a former member of the UK Army's armored vehicle development and testing unit and a real-life commander of the tank, posted photos of pages from the army's crew manual containing information about the vehicle's armor structure to support their claim. However, the images were edited to appear as if they were already classified according to UK law, leading to their post being deleted and a warning from authorities about the consequences of attempting to prove one's point on the internet with potentially treasonous material.

In October of that year, a similar situation occurred when a user on a forum claimed to be a former crew member of the Leclerc Serie 2, the latest model of the French army's main battle tank that has been in service since 1992. The user published classified data regarding the speed of the tank's turret, as the in-game’s characteristics did not correspond to the tank's actual characteristics. The forum moderators swiftly removed the materials and issued a warning that such data publication is against their policy.

Showing off military secrets is not limited to gamers in European countries. In June 2022, a fan of the game posted documentation on the forum about the specifications of DTC10-125 armor-piercing shells used in modern Chinese army tanks. Although military analysts knew of the projectile's existence, this was the first time the accompanying documentation was posted outside of China. The player even took a picture of the papers against the shells to make it more convincing. As in previous cases, the post was quickly removed, and the Chinese government expressed discontent over the incident. This led to the shutdown of the Chinese War Thunder server in August of the same year.

Hot shots online

Recently, leaked documents related to aircraft rather than armored vehicles have become a major focus online. In the month of January, forums for the game War Thunder published several documents, including information on the AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles for the F-16 fighter jet, a manual on the main systems of the F-15 fighter jet, specifications on the radar scattering area of the Su-57 and MiG-29 aircraft, and avionics for the Shenyang J-8 fighter jet used by the Chinese army.

These materials were classified to varying degrees and were not meant to be distributed freely. Although moderators promptly deleted them, players continued to disregard requests to refrain from posting such content on the forum. There are even rumors that Raytheon Technologies, a defense corporation known for producing Patriot air defense systems, inquires about potential employees' War Thunder activity during job interviews.

Formerly, individuals would take great risks and reveal classified documents based on their personal convictions or financial incentives, but now they do so to demonstrate that the virtual model's features do not align with those of an actual piece of equipment. This is despite the fact that developers may not have been able to create the most realistic version due to game limitations and gameplay conventions.

It's important to note that such incidents are not exclusive to WT. In 2019, there was significant media coverage about an Eagle Dynamics studio employee who was accused of attempting to smuggle technical documentation of the US Army to Russia. The investigation revealed that the employee was seeking individuals on forums to aid in the purchase of F-16 fighter jet manuals from various series. This is noteworthy because Eagle Dynamics, which is renowned for its highly realistic flight simulators used by some countries' military to train pilots, was founded in Russia but relocated to Switzerland. The company representatives immediately denied any involvement and stated that the suspect acted alone.

Recently, Brad Smith, President of Microsoft, disclosed that Russian intelligence and Wagner PMC members had made efforts to infiltrate Minecraft's Discord servers (owned by the corporation) for conducting information operations. He highlighted that Microsoft is collaborating with various governments regarding this matter. 

As a result, it is possible that in the near future, not only will security regulations for handling confidential files be reconsidered, but gaming communities may also be subjected to intensive surveillance by the United States and other NATO nations.