Anyone who has ever played video games can describe the adrenaline pumping and exhilarating experience video games can bring; however, they can also tell you about its rage inducing counterpart. Video games have long led to fights: its virtual battleground makes for unjustifiable accusations of cheating and even unhinged insults targeting mothers. Yet, for its almost 60-year existence, no one has ever released national security documents to win forum arguments until last year.
Beginning in 2021, fans of War Thunder, a popular vehicular combat game, released documents on an forum detailing classified tank documents from Britain, China, and France. One poster, who uploaded the manual for the British Challenger Tank, said that he was motivated by a desire to get a more realistic and accurate tanks in game. Following the same line of reasoning, another poster released the manual for French tank Leclerc S2 while in an online debate about the turret rotational speed. The motivations for the release of the Chinese tank was not clear.
According to many tank experts and professionals, none of these posts have any value to hostile countries. Steven Zaloga, a professional who has been analyzing tanks for the past 50 years, said: “I didn’t see anything I’d jump up and down about… Tank manuals will be classified at various levels even though a lot of information in it is not especially sensitive.” Sonny Butterworth, a senior analyst at a defense intelligence company, adds on that “[I]t was from a user manual so it’s classified, but it’s distributed fairly widely to anyone who uses the tank, supports it, or maintains it.”
Zaloga and Butterworth agree that most of the information released on the forum is already public knowledge as information can be found online or looking at international arms shows where governments and companies release stats on their vehicles to entice buyers.
However, If the leakage of confidential documents continues, it could prove to be a massive security problem for countries that are victims. “If publications keep getting leaked, something that looks innocuous could be quite important to someone who knows what to look for,” says Butterworth. Blueprints in particular could be extremely beneficial for hostile nations as they detail specific armor materials and configurations.
The creator of War Thunder, Anton Yudintsev, said he and his company are trying their best at removing posts that contain confidential documents as quickly as possible. He also warns the posters that there release of documents could be under violation of many laws. Already, British government officials have begun to take notice and have told Yudintsev that the documents shared should remain classified. According to Barbara L. McQuade, if similar postings were made on an US forum, it could lead to questions about national security and violations against the first amendment.
Many military professionals and even Yudintsev himself are bewildered at fans posting classified documents. In a statement, Yudinstev says, “breaking the law in order to win an argument online is too much. I’d like to ask all of them: please, never do that!”
Link:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1659884090197x946459499941007000/War%20Thunder%20fans%20leaked%20classified%20docs%20to%20get%20more%20realistic%20tanks%20-%20The%20Washington%20Post.pdf
Beginning in 2021, fans of War Thunder, a popular vehicular combat game, released documents on an forum detailing classified tank documents from Britain, China, and France. One poster, who uploaded the manual for the British Challenger Tank, said that he was motivated by a desire to get a more realistic and accurate tanks in game. Following the same line of reasoning, another poster released the manual for French tank Leclerc S2 while in an online debate about the turret rotational speed. The motivations for the release of the Chinese tank was not clear.
According to many tank experts and professionals, none of these posts have any value to hostile countries. Steven Zaloga, a professional who has been analyzing tanks for the past 50 years, said: “I didn’t see anything I’d jump up and down about… Tank manuals will be classified at various levels even though a lot of information in it is not especially sensitive.” Sonny Butterworth, a senior analyst at a defense intelligence company, adds on that “[I]t was from a user manual so it’s classified, but it’s distributed fairly widely to anyone who uses the tank, supports it, or maintains it.”
Zaloga and Butterworth agree that most of the information released on the forum is already public knowledge as information can be found online or looking at international arms shows where governments and companies release stats on their vehicles to entice buyers.
However, If the leakage of confidential documents continues, it could prove to be a massive security problem for countries that are victims. “If publications keep getting leaked, something that looks innocuous could be quite important to someone who knows what to look for,” says Butterworth. Blueprints in particular could be extremely beneficial for hostile nations as they detail specific armor materials and configurations.
The creator of War Thunder, Anton Yudintsev, said he and his company are trying their best at removing posts that contain confidential documents as quickly as possible. He also warns the posters that there release of documents could be under violation of many laws. Already, British government officials have begun to take notice and have told Yudintsev that the documents shared should remain classified. According to Barbara L. McQuade, if similar postings were made on an US forum, it could lead to questions about national security and violations against the first amendment.
Many military professionals and even Yudintsev himself are bewildered at fans posting classified documents. In a statement, Yudinstev says, “breaking the law in order to win an argument online is too much. I’d like to ask all of them: please, never do that!”
Link:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1659884090197x946459499941007000/War%20Thunder%20fans%20leaked%20classified%20docs%20to%20get%20more%20realistic%20tanks%20-%20The%20Washington%20Post.pdf