Gaming National Security Operations Center

Gaming National Security Operations Center

To the National Security Agency analyst writing a briefing to his superiors, the situation was clear: their current surveillance efforts were lacking something. The agency's impressive arsenal of cable taps and sophisticated hacking attacks was not enough. What it really needed was a horde of undercover Orcs. That vision of spycraft sparked a concerted drive by the NSA and its UK sister agency GCHQ to infiltrate the massive communities playing online games, according to secret documents disclosed by whistleblower Edward Snowden. The files were obtained by the Guardian and are being published on Monday in partnership with the New York Times and ProPublica.

The spies have created make-believe characters to snoop and to try to recruit informers, while also collecting data and contents of communications between players, according to the documents, disclosed by the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden. Because militants often rely on features common to video games — fake identities, voice and text chats, a way to conduct financial transactions — American and British intelligence agencies worried that they might be operating there, according to the papers. U.S. and British intelligence agencies — including the Central Intelligence Agency, Defense intelligence agency and Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters — have operated in virtual worlds and gaming communities to snoop and try to recruit informants. For example, according to Snowden documents, the U.S. has conducted spy operations in Second Life (pictured), where players create human avatars to socialize, buy and sell goods and explore exotic virtual destinations.

Because militants often rely on features common to video games — fake identities, voice and text chats, a way to conduct financial transactions — American and British intelligence agencies worried that they might be operating there, according to the papers.

The documents do not cite any counterterrorism successes from the effort, and former American intelligence officials, current and former gaming company employees and outside experts said in interviews that they knew of little evidence that terrorist groups viewed the games as havens to communicate and plot operations.

Or should that be WoW Let me repeat part of that:On the one hand, gamers might be amused to know that intelligence agencies take their alternate worlds and gaming strategies so seriously. On the other hand, I'm guessing that being infiltrated by real life spies is not going to be appreciated. One 2008 document specifically mentions World of Warcraft, Second Life and Xbox Live . And then there's this:Of course, the entire program has been reported to be costly but ineffective , and the dishonest attempts to justify it have been repeatedly debunked , although it stands to reason that some agents might enjoy gaming on the taxpayer dime. How the gaming community feels about their worlds being populated by real life spies playing real life games to find out more about their real lives, only time will tell.