Why secret US documents ended up on a server

As the Wall Street Journal reported, a previously unknown user shared a large number of documents belonging to the US military that were classified as “secret” and “top secret” on a rather small “Minecraft” Discord server.

The data contains sensitive information related to the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, which may be of particular importance to Russian troops. In addition to statistics on death tolls and recorded communications with US allies, details on Ukrainian air defense systems, offensive potential and information on Defense Forces weapon types are now publicly available.

The Ministry of Defense became aware of the leak after a Russian propaganda account shared modified excerpts from it on Telegram. Investigations then led to the aforementioned Discord server.

Experts are of the opinion that the publication is not an act of Russian espionage. It makes no sense for Russia to burn direct contacts with the Pentagon for such a day-long information spree, Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the Ukrainian president, wrote on Telegram.

Particularly shocking: Although the responsible person’s account and messages have now been deleted on Discord, you go loud kotaku assume that the leak happened during a discussion in the forum. Apparently, the secret documents were intended to serve as an argument to end jokes about the war in Ukraine and prove the authenticity of what happened.

The other users were apparently unaware that a serious crime had been committed under their noses. The secret files sat around for weeks before being shared on a more popular ‘Minecraft’ Discord server and then making their way to Twitter and Telegram via 4chan.

Now the FBI is investigating the matter and is also receiving support from Discord. It’s not the first time secret military knowledge has been shared on gaming platforms, because players want to win a discussion.

Those responsible do not seem to realize that – especially in this case – they are risking the lives of thousands of people to feed their egos. How and why people with such poor character suitability still have access to such important documents is something that the responsible institutions should urgently deal with.