Forums > News > Hell is other people with your Source Code...
Ronald Diemicke (1181) on 7/11/2006 1:35 PM · Permalink · Report
Gamers With Jobs has a post up about the alleged theft of the source code for 'Hellgate:London' - the first person shooter diablo-esq game that's been being worked on for quite a while. How does your source code get stolen? You'd think that after the Valve/HL2 incident everyone would have put a bit more into the network security budget. Is it negligence or just misfortune? I feel bad for them - but I'm still trying to decide exactly how much so. I know if I were working on something that had millions of dollars worth of work put into it that I'd make hella sure that it was protected with every possible measure I could take. What's the next step for a company who's just had their source code robbed (besides added network security and calling the police/FBI) ?
n][rvana (1823) on 7/11/2006 9:29 PM · Permalink · Report
Ouch! Another code steal...
Can't understand those hackers, what's the point in getting alpha/beta builds of games? You see, sometimes they are not even playable, levels are not connected yet (cough HL2 cough) among many other things.
I don't think they are hurting the industry in any way because normally the leaked product would be in such a state that only the most dedicated will find use for them. Usually without installers, optimized code, and bug infested, I see no reason why one should play those.
Is it that nowadays ppl just can't be bothered to wait? Ppl must have their products now only because today they awoke with an urgency to play a given game even if it's not finished? Add to that the fact that you cannot post reviews/screenshots online because the risk of being hunted by police is too great?
It saddens me that such behaviour on part of the hackers may be seen more like angry children that take revenge against their parents because they neglected them a candy than more purposeful attitudes. Now it's just this mentality of "be bad and do damage" just because I can do that, not because I have a compelling reason to do it.
Regarding the Hellgate: London theft, I think that it happened the same as when the HL2 code theft. Some hacker infiltrated the network and even though Valve's employees noticed that someone was doing stuff inside their network (like making a copy of the game's directory to a hidden subdir, and then RARing it in volumes), no one actually thought that someone would be trying to leak the game. When they asked around and no one seemed to be responsible of doing that, they unplugged their computers and changed password, but it was too late. The hacker manipulated the code and released it in IRC. But Valve got the hacker when he got back to Valve bragging about the theft, Valve offered him a job and paid him an airplane ticket, and when the hacker arrived at the airport, the FBI caught him. I think that the whole story is in gamespot's features.
So think that it is 100% negligence. I know that programmers at least should've noticed strange behaviour, but by the time that happens hackers have been in the network for quite some time. So if you are working on a million-dollar project, the least you can do is buy a $5000 firewall and implement some strong security policies like changing passwords each week, reducing the allowed IP ranges, automatically blocking open sessions after x minutes of inactivity, etc.
And I guess that there's no next step for a company whose network has been compromised except keep working on the project, and letting the FBI to try to get the thieves. What other option could it be? Closing down? No, I don't think so, too much money has been already poured on the product. I guess that the company has to accept that it was their fault anyway the lack of protection on their networks and that they are just paying the consequences. Which in turn returns us to the already mentioned point of which consequences would be if the leaked product is incomplete and ppl anyway will like to buy the final? I have not ever heard a single person that states that they didn't buy Doom 3 or HL2 only because they had already "played the leaked code".
What do you think?
Riamus (8480) on 7/11/2006 9:52 PM · Permalink · Report
Stealing code of unplayable games isn't necessarily just because someone wants to play the game. Sometimes it is just to show that you are "1337" (I really HATE that term... it's definitely not a term used by the truly elite hackers). Other times, usually with data rather than games, it is to get the knowledge to use on their own. If a game company really wanted to work outside the law, they could steal the code from a game that is high-end in terms of quality, coding, graphics, etc. and work it into their own game in such a way that they suddenly have a very good game with much less work. You can take the engine and such from many games and easily change graphics to make it look entirely different. Unless someone really looks into it, no one would guess that it was using stolen code.
Now, I'm not sure that any companies are really into doing that. I'm just saying that it can be another reason to steal the code. I really don't think the thieves are trying to steal it just to play it sooner. If they are, you're right... they're not very smart.
n][rvana (1823) on 7/13/2006 2:57 AM · Permalink · Report
Your POV is very interesting too... but I've seen somewhere mentioned that if the code stealers actually used the code to learn and modify it in order to make a new product, it would take them from 6 months to one year. Don't forget that nowadays games are developed by +100 ppl at a time. I am led to believe that a +100 team of hackers working on the same project would look too suspicious ;-)
About stealing the code to re-sell it to another company wishing to enter the market at whateve the costs would be more feasible, though...
Slug Camargo (583) on 7/13/2006 4:20 AM · Permalink · Report
The "OMFG some h4x0r stole my source code!!!!111" device can be a very convenient way for developers to push the release date forward.
I know it was in the case of Valve: After an entire year of consistently promising September 30, 2003 as the release date for Half-Life 2 with the whole 5-year anniversary and all, the stolen-code-gate arose, and then the release date was pushed forward almost a full year, and in the end the game still came out with a couple of painful bugs. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm....