How does this happen? Like people on the forum get into some argument about the turn radius of some tank and how they shouldn’t have lost a game, and then it escalates until someone posts the tank specs so they can be right on the internet?
Yes. This is apparently so much of a problem that US and other nations include this in security training for military personnel and contractors. They literally teach you not to get in arguments online about weapons capabilities and whatnot because they know people are dumb enough to post classified info just so they can be like “ackshually…” on an internet forum.
From what I’ve seen it’s usually that Gaijin have something wrong about the vehicle and so people leak actual classified information because they want it to be corrected.
MilSim people can be an odd bunch sometimes
And the devs are like “Are you fucking dumb? We won’t use classified info in our game.”
Well if it’s something like a turn radius, they can always claim that they just guessed right.
Are they under any obligation to protect the classified information if they’re not the ones who leaked it?
Knowingly owning or using classified info without proper clearance is, in fact, a crime.
That’s a large part of what Trump’s classified document raid was for. Former presidents usually have a lot of classified stuff to turn over after leaving office. It’s standard practice, (and perfectly legal) to simply send it back (via the proper channels) as soon as you discover you have it. But if you conceal it and refuse to return it (like Trump did) then that’ll land you in some hot water.
It’s my understanding that you’re only required to protect the information if you’ve actually agreed to do so, which is obviously a retirement for being given access. Elected officials are a weird area where they have a much easier time getting clearance, but they’ve still made agreements to protect the information.
Trump was authorized to handle classified information in the first place, which is why his mishandling was a problem. I haven’t read the actual law, but I’m pretty sure ordinary people who happen across classified information have no duty at all in any direction. If you can show me an example of a random person getting in trouble for sharing classified information that they didn’t steal or get others to steal, well, let me know.
So, hypothetically, you find a source who leaks data to you, then claim you were sent it anonymously, then all good, you’re not the one who leaked it and the source is unknown. I slightly doubt that it works that way, but I don’t have specific cases to prove it
Publishing classified info can get you espionage charges, just ask Julian Assange.
AFAIK it’s part of being given some clearance. In most Western countries it’s fine to republish already leaked material as a private citizen. How would the media do it otherwise?
What hot water has it landed Trump in?
None, because Trump deployed an appropriately-speced Cannon as a countermeasure.
No, his problem is that he was supposed to have access at some point wherein you agree to secure documents in certain ways. If you’re given it or find it you do not have that duty. Defense secrets are much more protected but still not that much of you aren’t supposed to have access.
No. You can publish it if you like. This is how journalists work. You cannot get someone to commit a crime towards getting classified documents (Assange tried to teach people to hack shit and pled guilty to this). But accepting them and publishing them is fine and good.
That is not what Assange plead guilty to whatsoever.
“He pleaded guilty to conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified information relating to the national defense of the United States” - https://apnews.com/article/assange-wikileaks-plea-deal-39b72e6be6a775dae9b008728a46e595
While they are, as stated by another commenter, I wonder if those documents count as working in intelligence and they have some External Security Colonel working on “moderation”
Unless…
Yea, I had a friend who spent his free time coding how different tarmac temperatures affect the wheels of a fighter plane in a flight sim. (DCS I think)
sometimes
One time it was a Chinese player pissed that their tank ammo wasn’t as strong as it should be so they posted it for the devs to buff
It’s sometimes this, and it’s sometimes Gaijin just claiming something is classified for whatever reason.
Sometimes, a British tank crewman posts technical specs from their manual for the Challenger 2. Sometimes, Gaijin claims that a declassified, internationally available manual for a Cold War era plane is classified. Or the Wikipedia article on a WW2 tank.
Yes. Supposedly it’s so bad that Raytheon includes the question “Do you or have you ever played War Thunder?” in their interviews now. Tho take that with a huge grain of salt.
That and the game is popular among military and ex-military members.
IIRC the reporting fudges the definition of “classified” a bit too.
Thank you! You post quality stuff.
Asked me to disable my adblocker, but I’m just runnng vanadium lol
Vanadium has had basic adblocking for about 5 months.
https://github.com/GrapheneOS/Vanadium/releases/tag/122.0.6261.43.1
It’s also one of those websites that begs you to let it send notifications the moment it loads, and has the ads that follow you and stick to your screen while you scroll.
That said though, I had no issues with Firefox on android + uBlock origin
Yeah, as far as I’m conceded, if my ad-blocker stops me, I missed nothing of value.
If its worth reading someone will copypaste it into lemmy
"This marks one of three leaks that have happened in the past week, though not all of them are directly tied to War Thunder. The first related to the release of documents on the Challenger British main battle tanks on the game’s forum, though that information was confirmed to be publically [sic] available from Britain’s National Archive."
Why would you call “leak” the disclosure of publicly available information?
There are at least two court cases I know, where the accusation is of leaking sensitive government info, while the info is publicly available. One is in Russia, and it’s kind of expected, considering what a bastion of free speech it is. One is in Estonia
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The leak happened earlier this week during a forum discussion regarding the T-90M, T-80BVM, and T-90S Russian main battle tanks, all of which are currently in service and appear in War Thunder itself. The documents shared are user manuals meant for those operating said vehicles and have, like most other military documents, been declared classified or sensitive even though they contain relatively surface-level information.
For fucking once it’s not idiots leaking western stuff. I’m like halfway convinced War Thunder is a Russian intelligence operation
tbf, if I ran an intel agency, after all these incidents, Id probably have someone “leak” fake classified docs on the warthunder forums or other similar places once in a blue moon, to spread misleading information to rival agencies as to the capabilities of my nation’s equipment. Both to blend in with a place idiots are known to actually post such info, and if its found out my agency was doing this, to cast doubt on the validity of any real docs from my side that were leaked before. Doesnt seem like itd cost much of anything to do, so there would have to be only minimal benefit to be marginally worth it
And who else could fake it better than the people who make them?
There have been two leaks about Chinese tanks and two about Russian jets even before this one, so while it’s mostly Western gear it’s not only that
Oh yeah I know there’s been other leaks before, just that most of the time it seems like it’s western gear and it’s a refreshing change
Not even the stupidest Take. Gijin is a Hungarian game studio and Hungarian Govt is more or less pro Russian.
And it was founded in Moscow by Russians, they only moved the HQ to Budapest later on
Wow that’s wild
This is why I’m halfway convinced. Like, I’m not actually convinced, but I’m also not not convinced.
it’s just morons trying to prove something. people don’t join the army because they’re too happy with who they are.
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Ukrainian farmer: “How do I put this hunk of junk into Neutral so I can load it onto my trailer?” *starts an argument on War Thunder forums*
Good ol’ Murphy’s Law: the quickest way to find correct information is to post incorrect information on the internet and wait for the inevitable “ackshyually”.
though
I see what you did there 🌚
Honestly these guys are both the smartest and stupidest folks imaginable at the same time - I’m just glad it’s the Russians they’re screwing over this time haha
If they were smart, they wouldn’t be playing Warthunder in 2024, tho
Ah yes, they must be playing that other historically accurate plane combat game whose name I totally forgot because it actually doesn’t exist and War Thunder is the only option.
I think their point is that people that play “historically accurate plane combat game” 's are stupid.
I think the dumbest thing is that people still think wt is accurate
You have IL-2 1943 for the plane part and Gunner Heat PC for the tank part.
And what for combined battles, or for WW2 tanks?
There was a Ukrainian Bradley fighting vehicle gunner who took down a Russian main battle tank with the anti-personnel machine gun, and thanked his time playing war thunder for knowing where to hit it when he had no anti-armour and no armour piercing ammo
He took out its optics and turret control
I have never heard of a 20mm auto-cannon being referred to as an “anti-personnel machine gun” before
Yeah, I couldn’t recall whether it was an autocannon or machine gun, but it was not loaded with depleted uranium ammo
The autism of tank nerds never ceases to astound me.
Next gen optics on modern MBT catch the whole spectrum
Seriously now, how many times has this happened?
Must be a day ending in y.
Is it Ponedelnik, Vtornik, Sreda, Chetverg, Pyatnitsa, Subbota or Voskresenye?
Did someone finally leak the metallurgy of Stalinium?
They just needs to write alien spaceships and then we’d find out about what’s really in area 51 within about a week.
How’s that place not just a den of glowies by now? Bet you can see it from fucking space
What’s a glowie?
A glowie is a government employee or contractor who is paid to pretend to be a civilian and fish for information. They don’t quite fit in with the role they’re playing, they “glow”.
Ohhhh!
Thanks.
You’re most welcome.
How WarThunder was funded:
CIA guy: “So y’know how Wikipedia became a trustworthy source of obscure information just by weaponizing pedantry?”
NSA guy: “I’m listening.”
Is this even noteworthy anymore?
It’s funny every time. I’d like to know every time it happens.
This issue is so common that one of my best friends had intentionally leaked the specs of a classified jet to prove a point, funny af honestly
Hahaha; I love the War Thunder community.
there should be the goal of having no standing national military on the planet by the middle of the 21st century
they are the tools of tyrants
We’ll lose the armies and have 10x the small gangs. Eventually leading to unorganized armies.
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