Drip, Drip, Drip

An NSA document from 2008, titled “Exploiting Terrorist Use of Games & Virtual Environments,” was published Monday by The Guardian in partnership with The New York Times and ProPublica.

In the report, the agency warned of the risk of leaving games communities under-monitored and described them as a "target-rich communications network" where intelligence targets could “hide in plain sight.”

The document showed that the US and UK spy agencies were collecting large amounts of data in the Xbox Live console network, which has more than 48 million players.

Real-life agents have been deployed into the World of Warcraft multiplayer online role-playing game and the virtual world of Second Life, in which people interact with each other through avatars.

[...]

If analyzed properly, the online games can become a major source of intelligence data, the unnamed author of the paper stressed.

They could be used to build pictures of the players’ social networks, obtain their photos and geographical locations, as well as gather their communications.

  

Because terrorists hang out gaming while they’re not flying airplanes into buildings, I suppose.

Perhaps more to the point:

The NSA and GCHQ also tried to recruit potential informants among the gamers, the report said.

[...]

The NSA had so many agents inside the games that a special "de-confliction" group was set up to make sure they wouldn’t hamper each other’s operations.

Perhaps the NSA should be actually looking for terrorists. Just a suggestion.

[T] he document provided no information about terrorist plots uncovered via online games surveillance, or any proof of terrorist organizations using them for communication.

Really?

The paper provides only one example when spying in online games managed to produce a piece of usable intelligence data.

Well, hey, it’s worth it if they stopped even one terrorist, isn’t it?

After the closure of a website, which sold stolen credit cards details, GCHQ managed to follow and establish contact with the swindlers, as they moved their business to Second Life.

Oh. Not terrorists, eh?

Is the NSA budget a little bloated perhaps?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.