Security News > 2023 > April > Pentagon super-leak suspect cuffed: 21-year-old Air National Guardsman

The FBI has detained a 21-year-old Air National Guardsman suspected of leaking a trove of classified Pentagon documents on Discord.

He also controlled a private Discord server, and allegedly posted photographs of the classified Pentagon documents to impress the private group's 25 members, which included netizens in Europe, Asia, and South America.

"We are aware of the press reports regarding a potential suspect in the Department of Justice's ongoing investigation into unauthorized disclosures of documents appearing to emanate from throughout the intelligence community," Ryder said.

Ryder did add that the Pentagon has "Stringent guidelines in place for safeguarding classified and sensitive information," and that the US Department of Defense has since tightened those guidelines to prevent additional leaks.

Since the sensitive documents surfaced on social media, military and security analysts have questioned their legitimacy.

If the files really did come from some Discord chat, filtering through 4chan and Telegram and into wider public view, it appears someone along the way modified the documents to, among other things, overstate supposed American estimates of Ukrainians killed, and understating Russian deaths.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/04/13/alleged_pentagon_leaker_arrested/