The US military has been the victim of an unprecedented leak. Indeed, many confidential documents relating to the war in Ukraine have been shared en masse on a Minecraft Discord server.
While Nintendo wants to force Discord to reveal the identity of the author of the latest leaks around Zelda Tears of The Kingdom, the platform is once again occupying the media scene this Tuesday, April 11, 2023.
According to our colleagues from wall street journal, top secret US military documents relating to the war in Ukraine have been shared en masse on a Discord server dedicated to Minecraft.
According to the American media, hundreds of files were originally uploaded to a small Discord server belonging to American users. Subsequently, these documents were released in March 2023 on a Discord Minecraft server. From there, they spread on different platforms, such as 4chan, Twitter or Telegram.
An extremely damaging leak
According to the US Department of Defense, this is one of the leaks “the most damaging in decades”. Because, about fifty files are classified “Secret” or “Top Secret”. These documents contain sensitive information about the Ukrainian war effort such as:
- types of weapons used by Ukrainian forces
- details of the country’s air defense systems and offensive capabilities
- battlefield death statistics
- key facts about US military allies
Apparently the documents were posted on a Minecraft server during a discussion about the game and the war in Ukraine. Note that some context is missing as the leaker’s posts and account have been deleted. But according to the Wall Street Journal, jokes about the Russian invasion annoyed the leaker who has decided to react by publishing these documentsin order to prove that the conflict was real.
Also read: The CNIL fines Discord €800,000 for non-compliance with the GDPR
Discord collaborates 100% with the authorities
For its part, Discord is cooperating fully with the American authorities as part of the investigation into this leak. “Discord’s top priority is to ensure a safe experience for its users. When we become aware of content that violates our policies, our security team investigates and takes appropriate action, including banning users, shutting down servers, and cooperating with law enforcement.” said a spokesperson for the platform.
Remember that this is not the first time that confidential documents are found on forums. Many times, classified military files relating to tanks or fighter planes have been posted on fighting game forums War Thunder.
