More Half-Life 2 theft details emerge

[Alpha]

British newspaper article sheds new light on gaming's most notorious code heist.

 

When Valve announced last month that a wave of international arrests had been made in the Half-Life 2 code theft, they directed questions to the FBI's Cybercrime Task Force. Task Force officers would only confirm arrests had been made but would not comment beyond that.

 

Luckily, the FBI's European counterparts are apparently more forthcoming. An article in yesterday's London Guardian outlined the Half-Life 2 code-theft arrests in the most detail to date. Besides talking about how the gaming community helped track down the perpetrators via online group-sleuthing, the article revealed several new details, including:

 

How the theft was perpetrated: According to the Guardian, "Having accessed Valve's server through a security-bypassing loophole in Windows, the hackers were able to download an early and hugely incomplete version of Half-Life 2 and posted it on the Internet for downloading via Usenet. A boxed version of the code was even on sale on the Ukrainian and Russian black markets."

 

This was confirmed to the Guardian by Newell himself, who told the paper, "Once into our network, hacking tools were installed, and a custom source control client [was] created to extract the Half-Life 2 code. This continued until October, when one of the hackers distributed one of my e-mails on a Web site. We knew something was horribly wrong with our network and took steps to prevent further incursions. This was followed shortly after by the hackers releasing the source code."

 

The "primary hacker" was German: The Guardian describes how tips from the gaming community led investigators to Germany. So large was the online hunt that "the risk of being caught prompted the primary instigator to contact Newell. He admitted hacking into Valve's server but denied any role in the theft, instead naming those responsible for distributing the stolen code." After the hacker ratted out his colleagues, Newell said he "had three independent ways of confirming this primary instigator and, through conversations with this individual, had convinced him to fly out to us in Seattle for a job interview." This is where the hacker would be picked up by the FBI. However, "the plan was changed so German authorities could [make] the arrests on German soil."

 

The Half-Life 2 hackers are in deep trouble: Besides being charged with the Half-Life 2 code theft, those arrested were "found to have links with similar crimes." (That information jibes with unconfirmed rumors that the German author of the Phatbot worm was involved in the theft.) The suspects can also look forward to being served a big, steaming bowl o' litigation by Valve, which is planning a battery of civil lawsuits against them.

 

By Tor Thorsen -- GameSpot

POSTED: 07/16/04 01:11 PM PST

Credits: http://gamespot.com

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This is the reason why hackers should never hack.

[Gryph]

I still can't believe Valve had the computer the full source code on an unsecure network. I'd have a sort of vault like in Mission: Impossible 1 to have full access to it.

[Agozer]

Hax0rs got pwned again. I'm sure Valve has tight security, but someone screwed up

[Wizard]

So gamespot finally took notice to a 5 day old story. I find that kinda sad.

 

Anyways, I could careless about HL2 now, but i'm glad they actually caught someone.

[An4L_Dr1p]

these ppl are going to prison now and they don't deserve it. there ganna get the **** pushed in becuz they sat on there comp and source from a big shot up-coming release.

 

they should not go to prison man that is just rediculis.

 

WOWA!!!!!! some one hax0r's a big game and go's to jail.....they need a more inovated punishment like no computer for a year.

[Gryph]

these ppl are going to prison now and they don't deserve it. there ganna get the **** pushed in becuz they sat on there comp and source from a big shot up-coming release.

 

they should not go to prison man that is just rediculis.

 

WOWA!!!!!! some one hax0r's a big game and go's to jail.....they need a more inovated punishment like no computer for a year.

Kind of like what they did with Kevin Mitnick. But he went to prison too. This was more than hacking, it was outright theft. They should be thrown in prison AND not be allowed to touch a computer for 1 year.

[Wizard]

Hacking is a very serious issue in the gaming world. If your hard work gets out there, in all it's binary glory, people will want to see it and take some stuff from it. Not only that, companies you've worked with to build the program, such as the Doll-rag feature a.k.a. The HAVOK engine, which is made by a development team in Germany, could of sued Valve for millions because parts of their code was in the leak. Most importantly, to these guys, their code was their life. If you knew 1/3 of your code was leaked, you'd delay the game until it's done.

 

They said it them selves the game wasn't going to be finished by September 30th in an interview with Doug Lombardi at this year's E3, then the code heist happened...

[ken_cinder]

Just more proof Windows is so frickin insecure.......why can't Valve sue Microsoft too?

[Wizard]

Because their good buddies.

 

Valve's CEO was a former Microsoft director guy.

[Weirdy]

Because their good buddies.

 

Valve's CEO was a former Microsoft director guy.

not so much buddies, but wouldn't microsoft be more like...Valve's pimp?

[Gryph]

Because their good buddies.

 

Valve's CEO was a former Microsoft director guy.

not so much buddies, but wouldn't microsoft be more like...Valve's pimp?

Uh? Why? Valve and Microsoft have nothing to do with each other except that Valve's games use Microsoft OSes.