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Microsoft president claims Russian intelligence is trying to "penetrate gaming communities"

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Duchess

Member

penetrate​

natalie-dormer.gif
 
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The Alien

Banned
Meabwhile Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook....any American or European company bends over backwards to sell its soul to for mere access to the Chinese market.
 

DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
Putin’s gonna be looking at some of the crazy discourse that goes on in gaming circles like Cyberpunk, Hogwarts, Kingdom Come: Deliverance and be like this shit is too crazy even for me.
 

Mr Reasonable

Completely Unreasonable
Presently, US companies are their own worst enemy when it comes to all of the progressive stuff creeping into gaming and media at large, thanks to some of the weirdos being hired into executive roles to fill quotas.
Maybe they are, but the last thing on my mind is Russia intelligence.
Russian agent right here.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
Spies pass data through lots of channels you wouldn't expect. What you thought was Bobby threatening to bone your mom was actually Vladimir passing nuclear secrets to Alexsi....
 

kingyala

Banned
and people will actually buy this stuff... this is exactly why i stopped watching news... phil spencer's and jim ryan's propaganda is enough for me..
 

Unknown?

Member
The president of Microsoft has claimed that his company has identified Russian intelligence and military groups trying to spread information via games communities.

During an on-stage interview at Semafor's World Economy Summit, Brad Smith was asked about the recent leak of Pentagon documents on a games-centric Discord server, and whether there are leaks and security issues in the gaming world that worry him.

"Well, I'll put gaming in the right context for this. It's not like playing Call of Duty is going to lead to deaths in the real world – I mean, these are video games," he said. "What people are talking about is, around games you have a community of gamers that come together, they talk to each other, including when they're playing a game.

"For the last several months, our digital threat analysis team has been identifying efforts by the Russians to basically penetrate gaming communities… And we've been advising governments about this. It's [Russian private military corporation] The Wagner Group, it's Russian intelligence, and they're using this as a place to get information into circulation.

"That's what happened here. It included the Discord channel around Minecraft, it included others of these [communities]."

Smith added that he believes this is "not the No.1 thing we should worry about" because such groups "are gonna publish information somewhere."

"It just happens [games communities are] a good place for them to get the information into circulation, and ultimately journalists find it," he said.

The leaked Pentagon documents reportedly revealed information regarding the Ukraine war, and the current suspect is believed to be a young gun enthusiast who was part of a games group on Discord.

Since Microsoft is affiliated with(and arguably an arm of[they participated in Prism]) the intelligence agencies, I don't trust anything they have to say regarding this.
 

Fret Runner

Member
zfga1lF.gif

We are fine here. Just lock everyone who posts in the UFO thread into that thread to contain them. If I was a Russian psyopper, that thread would be a goldmine for easy marks.

I kid I kid. You UFO nutters are cool and that thread is a fun occasional read.
 

Buki1

Member
You can play as Russians in their quest for world domination and shoot Americans in Battlefield 2042, I doubt some trolls on Minecraft discord could throw better pro russian campaing than EA.
 

Solidus_T

Banned
This charge by Smith is absurd. Might Russian intelligence be trying to recruit some gamers? Maybe, but the US has been doing this to a much larger degree.
The publisher that his company is trying to acquire has already been thoroughly "penetrated" by US intelligence! Call of Duty, though played by millions, is the constant target of ridicule by a large part of its player base for its obvious attempts at propagandizing the writing, resorting to historical revisionism, 1-dimentional demonization of any non NATO country, etc. Notably, Microsoft has already had multiple contracts with the Pentagon.
Smith's accusations are hypocritical at best and an open attempt to whip up fear of Russian people.
 

NickFire

Member
Jokes aside, doesn’t today‘s news kind of lend a bit of credibility to the claim? I mean, if a young man was stupid enough to basically brag about access and share docs, why wouldn’t it be plausible that another country would try tricking another person to do the same?
 

Goalus

Member
"For the last several months, our digital threat analysis team has been identifying efforts by the Russians to basically penetrate gaming communities… And we've been advising governments about this."
It's good to hear that MS is monitoring these activities. I feel extra-safe now being on Xbox Live, knowing that MS will protect me no matter the cost.
 

Ozriel

M$FT
Jokes aside, doesn’t today‘s news kind of lend a bit of credibility to the claim? I mean, if a young man was stupid enough to basically brag about access and share docs, why wouldn’t it be plausible that another country would try tricking another person to do the same?

Not just today’s news. There has been multiple leaks on War Thunder forums, for example.

It’s not just Russia, of course. in 2013, Snowden leaked the info that the NSA, CIA, FBI and western intelligence agencies were spying in MMORPGs.

https://www.businessinsider.com/spy...-nsa-gchq-world-of-warcraft-2013-12?r=US&IR=T

It’s hypocritical to paint it as a Russian thing, but yes, it’s 100% factual that intelligence agencies are monitoring gaming groups.
 

mdkirby

Member
It certainly explains the Marxist scum on ResetEra.
Not really. Tho I don’t doubt that there’s Russian agents on there. Typically tho Russia attempts to foment far right wing ideology, nationalism and isolationism with a heavy dose of trolling. As such they find much more fertile ground in anti establishment and less woke/pc communities. Neogaf, will for certain have a larger representation of ideologically centred or right wing members than resetera, and will thus be a more attractive environment for Russian influence campaigns.

Modern Russia is not Marxism 🤣, nor is the ideologies of ‘most’ us progressives. Hell the demands of most progressives in America are asking for stuff that is lesser than what we have as standard here in the uk under decades of conservative rule, and the tories definitely aren’t Marxist.

Russia presently is more akin to nazi germany in both action, function, ideology. They are a fascist dictatorship, which is not Marxism.

Anyhow, prob getting a little too political, given it’s an area we’re not supposed to divulge in, so I expect this thread to be inevitably closed down, given it actively encourages such discussion 🤣
 

nikolino840

Member
Information warfares.
That is the war that is currently happening. Expect all type of communication devices to be at the center of these wars.
From Reddit, to gaming channels, to discord. It's effective way of pushing your propaganda without financial strain.
There's a couple of ncis episodes about crimals and terrorists recluting and talking each others via videogames 😂
 
You have to be this American to believe that Russia is Marxist.
It’s even funnier because gaming it’s full of American propaganda and militarism. But that it’s not gonna be spoken by the media.

You're missing the point.

If I'm a far-right fascist nation trying to influence another. I'm gonna push an extreme left-leaning ideology so as to make my far-right-leaning politics appear less extreme.
 
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