An Open Letter to the PRTA Management and the PR Community

[Curry]

We would like to inform the PR community of the serious transgression by an individual and the PRTA management's failure to recognize and act on this.

The purpose of this thread is to inform the PR community of what has happened but also to point out that we will deal with any similar offences harshly. A line has been crossed and we are hoping that we can leave this mess behind us and use this as an opportunity to start all over.

A member of the PRTA management gained access to a private section of the [NEW] forums, which is shared between the [NEW] community and the clans [KSK] and [3dAC], by social engineering and leaked everything that was posted in there to the PRTA management forums.

On March 31st, a member of the PRTA management used a proxy and an e-mail address matching the identity of the person he wanted to imitate to gain access to the private "Ally Discussion" section in the [NEW] forums. Eventually he was granted access by the [NEW] board administration. We admit this was a mistake from our side. We were simply naive and didn't think anyone would want to exploit our trust like that - we were wrong. On April 15th it was brought to the attention of the [NEW] website administrators that someone was leaking internal communications. We were provided with several screenshots of our private forums within the PRTA forums.

The section the leaker had access to contained idle chat but also plans and preparations for events. The section also lists upcoming map tests, including map files which we guaranteed the mappers to keep private.On the screenshots provided by the whistleblower you could see that someone used the browser search function (Ctrl + F) and searched for "PRTA", the search results were highlighted.

We were shocked by the meticulous nature of these actions. The attacker impersonated a North American member of [3dAC]. Changed the board language, time zone, and used a proxy located in the US.There was no legal way for us to find out who it was without crossing ethical lines.

On April 16th we decided to share all the information we had available at that moment in the "Server Admin Private Forum" of in the PR forums. The post would have been neutral, without any finger pointing and meant as a fair warning to all community leaders and website admins to double check their security settings. We came to that decision in light of the brutal attacks on PRTA this Sunday. [NEW] was targeted by DDoS attacks in the evening hours of Thursday as well which we couldn't count in or out of the whole story at that point. We now believe that those attacks are not connected to these forum leaks.

We were about to post what little we knew in the Server Admin Forums, and we approached PRTA individually to discuss whether they knew anything about this security breach. Four PRTA managers were present during a short meeting in TS. They were kind enough to cross check a few IPs for me but as expected didn't find anything. They said they have neither heard nor seen anything regarding a possible leak in the [NEW] forums.I appreciated their support and left their teamspeak.

Two minutes later I was poked by one of the PRTA managers asking if I could spare some time for further discussion. I rejoined the channel and after that, they said that one of their managers had been leaking information from the [NEW] private section. I asked MrSheneai and Ranzpirat, two [NEW] admins and moderators, to join my discussion with them. They confirmed that they had access to internal information and revealed everything. A member of the PRTA management had been divulging private information in their management forums on a daily basis. He first posted the sensitive information on April 6th; though he had gained access and was able to view the private section as early as April 2nd.

They then revealed that they knew about all the planned map tests, including downloads, teasers, and other events.The individual shared whatever was posted in our forums on a regular basis with the PRTA management. The PRTA managers present at the meeting said they didn't know the information was from a private section. Similarly, they claimed they had only found out about this when I first approached them.There is, however, the possibility that not all members of the PRTA management had been following or were aware of the information posted in a thread called "NEW/3dAC" in the PRTA management section.

During this TS meeting I was also contacted by one of the PRTA managers by PM in an aggressive way and without provocation. It turned out that it was connected to the map test for the Polish Armed Forces which originally should have been organized by PRTA but didn't take place due to several reasons which are not relevant here. PRTA, at that point, could never have known that we would have been running the map test without the leaked information. Shortly before we left, one of the PRTA managers laughed and said "I told you the leak will get leaked."

It is shocking to see that none of the PRTA management had the integrity to contact a representative from any of our communities. The whistleblower has no connection to the PRTA management and will reveal himself by his own volition. We leave it up the PRTA management to reveal who was the one behind gaining access to the private section and leaking the internal information.The fact that the PRTA management only came out with the entire story when we were about to share it is evidence that they only cooperated to mitigate the potential damage to their reputation.

We expect the PRTA management to make a statement in this thread. It is not in the interest of anyone here to cause drama, havoc, or any further harm to the PR community. It is not in our interest to divide this community even further. We would like to use this opportunity to start afresh. We offer more cooperation, communication, and transparency from our side. We are all sitting in the same boat.

We understand that this fault lays with the PRTA managers and is not representative of the PRTA community as a whole. We hope to keep good relations with PRTA members and would like to remind them that they are always welcome on our servers. We are here to talk about this, and find a solution. This will only happen if there is enough cooperation and will from both sides. We offer the PRTA management the chance to communicate and coordinate on all levels, if that is in terms of events, bans, or any other matter. We respect PRTA's role in the community and honestly hope that they are willing to cooperate, moving forward to bridge the gap between our two communities.

We would like to ask everyone to keep this discussion calm and mature.

@R-MODs please remove any offtopic, bashing or trolling.

On behalf of the [NEW] community, the [KSK] clan and the [3dAC] clan,
[NEW] MrSherenai, [KSK] Norby & [3dAC] Curry-Chicken

[Pronck]

I have a few questions for the PRTA side.

First of all, who is responsible for this leak? Did he ran the operation on his own, or was it initiated by a group of people?

Second, what is the actual purpose of leaking information?

Third, what is the punishment for the person that has leaked the information trough?

[LiamNL]

A leak is a leak, the only matter of the leak is what kind of information got out, if it's sensitive information (such as the details described in the post) then of course you would be upset about it. I hope this will all be resolved with dignity and mature behavior.

[Elektro]

It's sad to read this. I really imagined that the PR community was the one place where this sort of thing didn't happen.

[disnoxxio]

We understand that this fault lays with the PRTA managers and is not representative of the PRTA community as a whole. We hope to keep good relations with PRTA members and would like to remind them that they are always welcome on our servers. We are here to talk about this, and find a solution.

At first let me say I'm really happy with these sentences since I'd like to stress that we have 700 members in PRTA which maybe 15 or less only knew about this so I cannot stress it enough that this is up to and business of the internal management of the PRTA community and has NOTHING to do with units or normal members in PRTA or PR in general.

At second, we will come with an official statement from the management side, we will be open and fair give a fair look into our standpoints but above all be straight to the point and straight forward. PR is small the community is small, and I think we can already agree on one thing: PR shouldn't be divided more and I on personal behalf but also on PRTA's manager behalf am more then willing to work towards a more healthy relation ship between PRTA and the stated communities/clans.

Regards,
Disnoxxio

[L4gi]

Totally not cool, gaiz.

[UncleSmek]

This is really embarrassing for the community as a whole and I sincerely hope who ever bears responsibility for this comes out with a formal apology.

3dAC, KSK and NEW, kudos to you guys on how you've decided to handle this.

[KillJoy[Fr]]

At first let me say I'm really happy with these sentences since I'd like to stress that we have 700 members in PRTA which maybe 15 or less only knew about this so I cannot stress it enough that this is up to and business of the internal management of the PRTA community and has NOTHING to do with units or normal members in PRTA or PR in general.

PRTA is ( or should be ) a group with different units from multiple countries, it's one for all - all for one, it's should be not a regroupement of bunch of egocentric members.

[disnoxxio]

;2067710']PRTA is ( or should be ) a group with different units from multiple countries, it's one for all - all for one, it's should be not a regroupement of bunch of egocentric members.

That is maybe how you see it, however we share a common set of rules and goals we have but those can heavily differantiate outside those shared set/rules we have. But I don't think that's of any value at this point.

[L4gi]

TLDR:

1. Individual A uses a proxy to impersonate individual B, who is a member of guild C.
2. A gains access to private forums, because admins of forum D dont know it is actually not B.
3. A leaks some sort of information to management forums of another community because ???
4. Busted.jpg, and some **** tries to involve 2 other groups which had nothing to do with the whole matter.

[CR8Z]

At this point, I think it's fair to say to anybody reading this that we are ALL in the same community. I don't know what server browser you guys see, but I'm pretty sure we have all played on the same server at some point in recent months.

For the love of the game, can't we all just get along?

[IINoddyII]

A number of o/t posts removed.

TBH my preference is that this wasn't in the open forums, but appreciate the OP's request for transparency - once PRTA management have responded I would like to close this thread so we can all move on with our lives.

Please PM me if you have any issues.

[disnoxxio]

Dear PR community,

At first we would like to say that this will be the one and only official statement about this matter. We will attempt to give a fair and honest description about what happened and everything we state will be as honest as possible. After this, there can hopefully be a new beginning with the clans/communities involved.

As reported, on April 6th we were provided with screenshots taken from a specific kind of forum. This individual from the management stated that he got access through another source in the NEW forum. Once again the individual said that it was leaked to him and never told the PRTA management that s/he was the source of the information. The PRTA management had no prior knowledge about whomever the person was who was leaking the information and if the source, a PRTA manager at that time, committed the act in question.

Most of the content of those screenshots were of a defamatory nature that some of the key members of the NEW community were providing to PRTA. Only one section of screenshots weren't focused on other important internal matters but mainly on the attitude towards our community. There is no gain for us and we don't need that kind of information. Lately we made some progress on actually coordinating those events between 3dAC/NEW/PRTA and others, and on a personal level and as a PRTA Event Manager, I and the rest of the PRTA management appreciate such coordination.

This defamatory attitude towards everything that has to do with PRTA has and continues to aggravate some of the people who work hard to provide a good experience for all of PRTA as well as for the entire PR community. We at PRTA believe that all PR communities have the same shared goals about playing PR: creating an unparalleled gaming experience through communication, teamwork and sportsmanship.

That we often clash on different occasions, both internally and externally, is where the problem between our communities lie. If we are all honest here this hasn't simply been a problem for a few weeks, but for the last few years. The distrust that had already developed before this incident made it difficult for PRTA and NEW/3dAC to start working together.

This does not mean the PRTA is without blame. At the point of the first screenshot no one had said a word about how wrong these leaks could be or if they were detrimental to either our community or yours. We of course came to the conclusion that they were and the PRTA Management wants to apologize for these leaks but also our lack of communication. We intend no harm to anyone of the PR community and like former posts in this topic already say, we see this as a mainly relational problem. A problem that had already existed due to earlier mistakes from both sides, but a problem that has been made larger due to our mistakes. If we had been honest with each other from the start, this leak would have been utterly pointless. If we have any problems with each other, we should simply voice them directly to one another and make a point to avoid posting criticism behind closed doors. PRTA is open to any and all criticism and frankly, we believe criticism improves us. With this in mind, everyone is obviously entitled to having their own personal opinion about everything, but if you truly care about something, voice it.

Again, we are truly sorry about this unfortunate incident.

Currently the management consists of about 18 members. Recently we have made some switches on some key positions to ensure better cooperation. Not simply between PRTA and NEW/3dAC, but all PR communities. I also want to stress appreciation for the immense technical cooperation we have between both our communities, which is something we should acknowledge from time to time, and is something upon which we can build a better PR community.

PR is still what matters us all; an unparalleled gaming experience of communication, teamwork and sportsmanship; it is still what connects us in this small but insanely great community. It is that spirit that we hope to nurture with you and all players and supporters of this great game, this great idea.

Regards,
PRTA Management



On personal level, I will reach out to all of these clans/communities so we can talk internally about future cooperation and who to talk to.

[L4gi]

Also, would be nice if whoever was involved wouldnt try to defame groups that have nothing to do with this.

[Spec]

Anyway, that's the two statements.

Everything else should be handled by the people involved, if a mediator is required I can always be contacted.

Thanks for largely staying mature about this, glad to see that this thread did not at any point devolve into what we had feared. Thanks to the community, and thanks to Noddy for keeping an eye on this when I didn't have time.