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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Alex Hern UK technology editor

Pentagon leak traced to video game chat group users arguing over war in Ukraine

A computer user's hands at work on a back-lit keyboard and mouse
The leaked US intelligence cache was exposed when documents about Ukrainian and Russian casualties in Bakhmut began circulating on public networks. Photograph: Christopher Pike/Getty Images

A damaging batch of documents leaked from the Pentagon appears to have been initially shared on the video game chat platform Discord in an effort to win an argument about the war in Ukraine, according to open-source intelligence analysts.

The bizarre provenance of the leak may seem unusual but it is far from the first time that a dispute between gamers has sparked an intelligence breach, with the overlapping communities causing problems for military and gaming platforms alike.

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