Online leaks of documents outlining US tactics for backing Ukraine against Russia have been leaked on Twitter and Telegram among other social media sites. The first mention of the papers appeared on a Minecraft Discord server, where players gather to talk about the video game.
The history of the leaked Pentagon documents has been tracked by Bellingcat, an open-source intelligence research company, on websites like 4Chan, a controversial message board frequented by racists and mass shooters, and Discord, a website popular among gamers where users can host their chatrooms or servers.
At least 10 documents marked Top Secret were posted to a Discord server called Minecraft Earth Maps, according to Bellingcat. Minecraft is a highly popular video game that allows users to build their worlds, but for some reason, a user on Discord decided it was a great place to share incredibly sensitive U.S. intelligence.
“After a brief spat with another person on the server about Minecraft Maps and the war in Ukraine, one of the Discord users replied ‘here, have some leaked documents’ – attaching 10 documents about Ukraine, some of which bore the ‘Top Secret’ markings,” Bellingcat wrote in a new report on Sunday.
This leak begs a question, is there anything truly confidential in this modern world? If documents related to war can be found on the internet. What about the data of millions of people that use various apps for everyday chores?