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Documents detailing the performance of a Chinese main battle tank are not quite a leak, but Gaijin is playing it safe anyway.
Dedicated tank fans on the War Thunder forums have done it again, posting sensitive data relating to a Chinese tank in order to prove a point about their favourite in-game vehicle.
This time, documents relating to the Chinese VT-4 tank – or at least an export variant – were posted to the military vehicle sim’s forums before being quickly deleted by forum admins.
In fact, the entire thread, not just the offending post, was deleted, though a support ticket is currently still open hosting the offending document, which appears to be a crew manual published by the Royal Thai Army.
The manual in question – a detailed look at the tank’s autoloader and its speed of performance – does not appear to be a restricted document, however. The manual, focused on a Thai version of the tank, is apparently readily available.
But the admins of the War Thunder forums appear to be playing things very safe, given the form the game’s fans have when it comes to leaking restricted documents.
Documents relating to the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter were posted to the game’s forums in September, while NATO’s Eurofighter Typhoon DA7 aircraft got the same treatment a month before in August.
“Do not post the DA.7 manuals,” replied one very tired mod in response at the time, before sharing Gaijin’s (the game’s developer) rules on posting such material.
“IN BRIEF,” the rules state, “you are not allowed to publish any classified information and export-restricted military-technical data other than declassified information.”
One day, the gamers might listen. But it is not this day.
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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