techspot Microsoft warns that Russian agents are trying to infiltrate gaming communities

[UltraMega]

Quote

Microsoft president Brad Smith said his company's security analysis teams have identified efforts by Russian agents to share information within gaming communities.

 

"We've been advising governments about this," Smith continued. "You know, it's the Wagner Group, it is Russian intelligence, and they're in part using this [gaming communities] to get information into circulation. That's what happened here. It included the Discord channel around Minecraft, it included others of these [communities]."

Microsoft warns that Russian agents are trying to infiltrate gaming communities

WWW.TECHSPOT.COM

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Speaking at Semafor's World Economy Summit, Microsoft president Brad Smith said his company's security analysis...

This is almost comical. It sounds like a headline from The Onion. 

 

I guess I'm getting old because back in my day we just had to worry about Minecraft griefers, not Russian spys

 

 

[EHW Ai]

Wouldn't surprise me if Jason Citron ends up having to testify before our mostly useless legislators.

Edited April 14, 2023 by iamjanco
added link

[Snakecharmed]

Rush B Сука блядь!

[EHW Ai]

13 minutes ago, UltraMega said:

 

 

I guess I'm getting old because back in my day we just had to worry about Minecraft griefers, not Russian spys

 

Lol, back in my day we had to worry about McCarthyism.

 

Seems like that's coming back into vogue now, with the shoe on the foo bird's other foot.

 

[Andrew]

I would not at all be surprised if it turns out they've been doing this, and been successful in doing it since at least 2014-2015. That's when large gaming communities really went bad and a lot of politics started to get talked about. That's around the time the "oppressed gamer" became a thing and a lot of things "oppressed gamers" believe now line up pretty well with the same anti-Western propaganda Russia and China have been spreading for decades.

 

The people in those communities also tend to have a pretty fragile ego. See: War Thunder classified document leaks as well as the classified documents leak that just happened in that Minecraft Discord server that the article talks about. Every single time, without fail, the documents leak the same way.

 

Someone makes a claim about something. Someone else says "you're wrong"/"you don't have those documents" then their fragile ego kicks in and they post those documents as proof that they aren't lying. This is a fantastic tool that the military can use, and tbh I wouldn't be surprised if all of the classified document leaks ended up being bait.

 

  

13 minutes ago, iamjanco said:

Wouldn't surprise me if Jason Citron ends up having to testify before our mostly useless legislators.

I look forward to watching that to hear questions being asked such as:

Does UwU mean good things, yes or no?

Tracer rule 34 violation. Is that part of the Chinese spy network?

Edited April 14, 2023 by Andrew

[EHW Ai]

11 minutes ago, Andrew said:

I look forward to watching that to hear questions being asked such as:

Does UwU mean good things, yes or no?

Me, I look forward to hearing them ask what the foo bird is.

 

btw, not that it matters, but China's firewall blocks Discord. I imagine that if you're in the know there, you can get through that anyway.

 

 

[UltraMega]

I have a friend who has always been into conspiracy theories and propaganda. He believes the dumbest things without question, and I'm pretty sure he gets most of his info from Discord groups. 

[EHW Ai]

7 minutes ago, UltraMega said:

I have a friend who has always been into conspiracy theories and propaganda. He believes the dumbest things without question, and I'm pretty sure he gets most of his info from Discord groups. 

 

I suspect that such effects are not limited to just social media outlets these days. What passes for "News" these days probably should be included in that as well (whether the source typically leans left or right).

[UltraMega]

22 minutes ago, iamjanco said:

 

I suspect that such effects are not limited to just social media outlets these days. What passes for "News" these days probably should be included in that as well (whether the source typically leans left or right).

Most def. It seems like the comments section of just about every online outlet that has anything to do with news is filled with propaganda bots now. 

[pio]

Give me a freaking break.  Microsoft's going full ham on Russia, Russia, Russia again?  
 

How do we even know its Russia?  Maybe its China, North Korea, Iran or Iraq, Turkey, Libya.......there's a LOT of countries that would absolutely love to cause chaos in the US.  Maybe its our own government?  Does Microsoft not know what a VPN is?  What happened to common sense.  Oh yeah, "It's on the internet so it MUST be true.....".

/sarcasm - EDIT

I'm sorry, I know there's...........you know, "the situation" right now with Russia.  I just honestly don't believe even half of the propaganda about it.  I think there's good people across the entire world, so I'm not going to sit here and judge an entire country's worth of people because Microsoft tells me to.

Agreed with every other point made so far in the thread too.

Edited April 15, 2023 by pioneerisloud
made point of where sarcasm ended

[UltraMega]

33 minutes ago, pioneerisloud said:

Give me a freaking break.  Microsoft's going full ham on Russia, Russia, Russia again?  
 

How do we even know its Russia?  Maybe its China, North Korea, Iran or Iraq, Turkey, Libya.......there's a LOT of countries that would absolutely love to cause chaos in the US.  Maybe its our own government?  Does Microsoft not know what a VPN is?  What happened to common sense.  Oh yeah, "It's on the internet so it MUST be true.....".

I'm sorry, I know there's...........you know, "the situation" right now with Russia.  I just honestly don't believe even half of the propaganda about it.  I think there's good people across the entire world, so I'm not going to sit here and judge an entire country's worth of people because Microsoft tells me to.

Agreed with every other point made so far in the thread too.

For those that hear that Russia doing this stuff and have a reaction of disbelief, it's entirely possible that reaction is based on the exact kind of misinformation Russia is putting out there. To me it's a strong sign of the high level of success Russia has achieved with these tactics when so many people in the US would defend Russia and criticize their own government when they hear about Russian propaganda. There is certainly an ideological divide on the types of people that are most affect by this kind of propaganda that learns heavily towards the right. I don't mean that as a personal comment towards anyone here, it's just a fact that I think has been highly verified at this point and can be considered common knowledge among those who still value a strong attachment with reality over what they want to be true, or believe to be true based on Russia's efforts, or both. 

But to respond more directly, when you say stuff like "Does Microsoft not know what a VPN is?", I think it really hurts your argument because it's like, yes, of course they know what a VPN is. They are the second largest company in the world, and they are the largest software developer period. I think it's safe to say they have some ability to track things online effectively. 

This also lines up perfectly with lots of other reporting, so it's not like it's just Microsoft pointing this out. 

[pio]

nvm

Edited April 15, 2023 by pioneerisloud
nope

[ENTERPRISE]

Nothing particularly new. Agencies or just people in general have masked their activities by conducting themselves through other mediums to try and avoid being detected in plain sight. Considering nature of gaming discussions in forums and chats, I would imagine it is a good medium for disguising legitimate "spy" related discussions which to the normal person would seem normal, or just a little out of context. 

 

I know if I see some chatter that is semi related but out of context I would scream "Spy!"

[Andrew]

3 hours ago, ENTERPRISE said:

Nothing particularly new. Agencies or just people in general have masked their activities by conducting themselves through other mediums to try and avoid being detected in plain sight. Considering nature of gaming discussions in forums and chats, I would imagine it is a good medium for disguising legitimate "spy" related discussions which to the normal person would seem normal, or just a little out of context. 

 

I know if I see some chatter that is semi related but out of context I would scream "Spy!"

Bomb has been planted?

[ENTERPRISE]

10 hours ago, Andrew said:

Bomb has been planted?

The eagle has left the nest.

[bonami2]

We need a russian Spy Badge now