Pentagon documents leak to Minecraft Discord forum

On Thursday, the FBI arrested a 21-year-old aviator named Jack Teixeira in connection with the alleged leak of classified Pentagon military documents on a small Discord server called “Thug Shaker Central.” classified as an act of espionage, ten of these photos ended up on the Minecraft World Map serverWhere they were spotted on social networks by American intelligence agencies.

According to researcher and analyst Aric Toler of Bellingcat, the documents had been running on the small server since December. Although it contains some sensitive information dating back to February.

U.S. government officials have confirmed that many of the documents—many detailing strategies for Russia’s war against Ukraine—that led to Teixeira being formally charged with twice violating the Espionage Act were authentic. If the guard is found guilty, he will face up to 15 years in prison.

What did Discord say?

(This is probably not a sick zero source of leaked documents – though it would be hilarious if it were)

—Aric Toler (@AricToler) April 7, 2023

At first, Discord has nothing to do with the leaks. Its servers function as social hubs organized by topics and people. Many people use the platform to chat in small groups while playing video games. The Minecraft server mentioned above, for example, has thousands of people interested in sharing high-quality maps of the open world game.

In a statement emailed to the game site polygonThe San Francisco platform said it was cooperating with authorities and will continue to provide clarifications until the end of the investigation. “Our Terms of Service expressly prohibit the use of Discord for illegal or criminal purposes”spokesperson highlights.

While it’s unclear how the FBI got to Teixeira, it may have happened thanks to a “digital evidence trail”. New York Timeslinking the airman to the leaked documents. The post managed to find the leaker’s profile on Steam, another gaming platform. This led the investigation to old photos of the counter from which the documents were copied.