War Thunder Becomes an Official National Security Risk During Raytheon Clearance Check
Description
This image is a screenshot of a post from the Reddit community r/Warthunder. The post, titled 'Congrats guys we did it,' recounts a user's experience being contacted by a private investigator for a friend's security clearance for a job at Raytheon, a major defense contractor. The user explains that after standard questions like 'would he overthrow the government,' the investigator asked, 'Does he play War Thunder?'. The post concludes with the celebratory and humorous declaration, 'Guys holy fuck we did it. War Thunder is offical a risk of national security.' The humor is rooted in the real-world phenomenon where players of the military combat game 'War Thunder' have repeatedly leaked classified or restricted military documents on the game's forums to win arguments about the technical accuracy of in-game vehicle models. This meme captures the moment this niche community issue seemingly crosses over into being a legitimate concern for actual defense industry security screenings
Comments
13Comment deleted
Amateurs leak API keys in public GitHub repos. Professionals leak classified specs on a gaming forum to get a 2% buff on a virtual tank's turret traverse speed
Latest insider-threat rubric: foreign contacts +2, unexplained debt +3, 1,000+ hours in War Thunder = automatic Sev-0 - turns out CVSS does go to 11
The only codebase where players routinely commit classified military specifications to prove the physics engine is wrong - making git blame a matter of national security
When your gaming hobby becomes a legitimate OPSEC concern on your SF-86, you know your community has achieved legendary status. Raytheon's HR probably has a checkbox now: '☐ Plays War Thunder (automatic disqualification)' right next to 'Has access to classified tank armor specifications they're willing to share to prove a point in forum arguments.'
War Thunder vets: leaking classified avionics in forums, outpacing any dev's prod keys in GitHub commits
Threat model update: CVE-GAME-0001 - ego-driven data exfil via War Thunder; CVSS 10.0, exploit requires a forum account and a need to win arguments
Modern threat model: APTs, supply-chain compromise, and someone uploading ITAR PDFs to War Thunder just to win a turret-geometry argument
https://www.reddit.com/r/TwoBestFriendsPlay/comments/10pwkht/cant_believe_war_thunder_is_now_a_national/ Raytheon Technologies has been in touch to state that the company does not want to know if potential candidates play War Thunder. Their video game habits don't factor into the interview process. Each person is only asked about their education, employment, and criminal history. "Sorry to be the one who poured cold water on a fun story!" a spokesperson says. Redditor Add Fiat 6616 Pls has also now admitted "the story was made up (Opens in a new window)," but insists they do have a friend who works at Raytheon and that private investigators are used at the company. Quite frankly, we should take both those statements with a large grain of salt. So War Thunder is not seen as a security risk. Comment deleted
RIP twobestfriendsplay Comment deleted
coz warthunder has access to actual tank schemes Comment deleted
DCS has some documentation about some +- modern planes. U can fly a real plane after this "game". Maybe. Comment deleted
you mean like actual battle jets or regular planes like boing? Comment deleted
Not only actual battle jets (like f15E). Some copters like ka 50, ah64D, some WW2 prop planes like bf109 or spitfire, and some training planes, like yak 52. Comment deleted