Shul, no one said it was going to be easy. Its a pain, and requires discipline, but at least your product is protected.

Everything you wrote about can be done on the designated PC, just make sure you don't have HL2 sitting on it.

I agree with your point about port 80. Obviously some heads need to roll at Valve. I think we can safely call this the gaming equivalent of the 9/11 intelligence failure, although I know its obscene to even compare the two events.

Then a few weeks after you bought your 5900 Ultra Valve bad mouthed NV saying that the only real card that will run THEIR engine the best was ATI. All i got to say is even though there are Ex-Microsoft Coders on the staff doesnt mean they have to follow MS's lead on everthing. Only reason NV got Shafted was because of the coders on their team who think MS is god and with MS going to ATI for the next Crapbox, they wanted to follow MS's lead.

I will not buy ATI because their driver suck, CS is worse, and have no OFFICAL LINUX SUPPORT. Yea Like i will dl a hacked driver from a group of ppl who cant get specs for everything on the card. NV might have made a bad call using this card revision cycle to focus on adding features(Most of which are stuff from the 3dfx buy out), but their trying to get it back together with the next driver taking major steps to fix framerates on the 5900, and lets not forget its's fast aproching Q4 2003 so that means another announcement from NV about their next card. ATI didnt focus on graphics enhancements but focused on the one thing they have always lost to NV over which is framerate. It's funny because everything ATI does on their cards is because NV forces them to find a way to do it;
Hardware T&l: NV (geforce) first then 3 card revs later ATI(Radeon)
Pixleshader & Vertex Shader support: NV(Geforce3) first again then 5 card rev's later on ATI(Radeon9500)
Programable graphics core: NV(GeforceFX) first and ATI still hasnt realesed a card with it.

And on the subject of Steam. I dont like it, wont use it, find it to be the bigest waste of time and R-n-D money. Of couse what else should we expect from the company that has tried to force other things down our throat's before. Anyone remember their dial-up service that promiced to be a new experiance because it was going to offer Low ping experiances to ppl on 56k. As memory serves it ended up being a worse experiance in the test markets(higher pings, laggier connections to normaly smooth servers).

Anyway Sign me up as another person who's not spending another dollar on Valve or their Gimicks because of their Aragance.

What worries me is that most companys have many developers accessing a source control system. Valve has other things like Steam and HalfLife 1 games that they release. What is to say that some smart hacker wouldn't be able to put a trojan into the steam code? Didn't steam just have an update a week or so ago? I am seriously thinking about uninstalling it from my computer.

How are we to know that the code the do still have doesnt have any malicous code in it? I would like to hear from valve that they have verified the code from before the break in and know if any changes were made to the code at all.

go use a designated PC.

Yeah right, take the easy way out.

What about online help, collaborating with outsiders, consulting sdk documentation, downloading open source projects, using different online tools, google, deja, irc buddies (yes, from time to time you get the mind blundering c++ inheritence of dual precision to float question you just can't handle without in depth x86 assembler knowledge...) and whats not.

So? instead of using some good firewall with statefull packet sniffing and *knowing* all you get in and out of your dmz is port 80 http requests and *thats it* you suggest a different thing, having a designated PC.

Great. and what happens when you need to send some actual code to someone you trust? we are talking about f234ing email here, the bread and butter of the industry, not some off world service like skype beta...

Max Payne 2

Assuming it will be out...

Tom, nice scenario, but it doesn't fit this situation.

Valve was negligent in the extreme by even allowing PCs with HL2 on them to have access to the Net. I, like others, was flabbergasted to read this. Is this how a top of the shelf gaming company operates?

The rest of the gaming industry can thank Valve for providing an object lesson in how NOT to secure your product during development. You can bet that other gaming houses are re-examining their in-house security practices after this one.

Its very simple. Stay off the *!@(#*` Net. You want email?... you want to surf?.... go use a designated PC.

This is security 101.

Most of you people suck big time. Just thought I'd let you know.

Thanks!

I'm a regular visitor to BluesNews but this is my 1st time posting.

Valve certainly have some big probs at the moment, but there's a few things that bother me over this whole HL2 delay/leak thing.

1. Valve say that Gabe had someone accessing their mail systems etc several weeks ago. This would explain thew recent hoax emails sent out to several sites saying the game "would" still be released on thee 30th Sept - BUT, if I was a hacker with intimate access to all Gabes emails I would have known that the game had been delayed weeks ago so I'm surprised that this was never leaked.

2. The recent ATI launch event was supposedly going to be spearheaded by HL2. Even the location & date appears to have been chosen with this in mind. Seems strange to go to all that trouble for a game that wasn't ready to be released/shown. These events are VERY expensive and I can't see that ATI would have made such a big investment about HL2 without substantial assurances from Valve that the game would be ready to release. Those that did attend the event have commented on the fact that it's not at all what they were expecting (i.e. to see HL2 in all it's glory)

3. Why was only the source code stolen?. I'm not expert but I don't see why Gabe would only have JUST uncompiled source code on his machine - I'd imagine that it's unusable without the content!? (Unless of course the whole game HAS been stolen but not released yet !)

4. I found it strange that Gabe went into so much detail as to how the code was taken. Most companies would try and cover themselves by being a little more vague - May only prove how upset Valve are over this whole episode.

With ref to 1, I personally believe that HL2 *WAS* completed and ready for it's official launch at the ATI event on the 30th Sept, but the realisation that the source code had been stolen completely screwed everything up.
This may also explain why the game was delayed just a week from it's release date.

Some have said that the reason the code was stolen in the 1st place was as revenge for Valve delaying the game - but at the time of the intrusion into Vale's systems the game was still on course for it's Sept 30th release. Add to that the fact that whoever hacked their mail server appears to have been unaware of any delay (or I suspect they would have leaked this info), then I suspect that the delay of the game is a result of the leak and not the other way round.

Some may say "release the game anyway and then patch it" in order to get around any online cheats that may come from the leak but I don't believe that would work - if you have the source code you can work out what's been patched and work round it. The only real way to fix this is to re-write some of the code from scratch so I'm afraid that we're probably going to have to wait some time for Hl2 to be released.

On the positive side, the new "holiday" release date was made AFTER Valve knew what had happened so they've probably taken this into account. So hopefully we're not looking at a 2004+ release date at least.......Hopefully anyway.

3.

So basically there is no good FPS out there to play with.

Yeah, you're right.

Oh, hang on, there's Contract J.A.C.K, that should be good for a laugh.
And there's Max Payne 2, which should be pretty impressive, assuming you liked the first.

Oh, and that other one... um... what's it called... De... Deus... Deus something or other.

Damn, forgotten it.

It scares me that most people don't seem to understand the difference between being at fault and deserving what you get.

And Carmack never got h4x0r3d

... eh.. Sorry, but carmack got haxored more times than he'd like to count...

All the doom games. All the quake games. Couple of tests and beta's, levels and what-nots. But it's not Carmack vs Gabe here, it's the principal: If microsoft can't sell products (it's a f34#$king email client for god sakes!!) I don't think they should sell anything, and I also think valve has a good case against Microsoft (Assuming they kept all other doors guarded...).

So? Now when you close your eyes you don't see Doom (got puzzled by the source engine) or HL2 (got screwed over by some script kiddies), what about Duke? - oh, that one is not going to see the light of day, not in the near future anyway, So basically there is no good FPS out there to play with.

Nice try but Valve isn't some "half"-ass operation. It's a big time real business with enough money and smarts to prevent this type of thing.


And Carmack never got h4x0r3d



I'm closing my eyes now and thinking of a time back in May. Gabe was a genius for the "develop in secret and announce when you are ready" approach. Doom and HL2 were coming in September; small birds would land on my shoulder and sing their sweet song as I walked merrily in the park.

mmm... much better

The people that blame valve for this really have no clue. Your type of attitude is the reason things like rape shield laws are on the books. You blame the VICTIM when they have been CLEARLY (not allegedly i.e. Kobe case) been violated. As if to imply it was in some way valves fault because there security wasnt good enough?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Let say we take your attitude and apply it to this secenario and you tell me if it is right

You: Hello police my car was stolen
Cops: Did you lock the doors
You: Yes
Cops: Did you leave the keys in the car
You: No
Cops: Did you set your car alarm
You: Yes
Cops: Did you park it and lock it in your garage
You: Yes
Cops: Did you get Lo-Jack installed on it
You: No
Cops: Well sorry numbnuts its partially your fault you didnt do EVERYTHING you possibly could to keep your car from getting stolen so we will help you when we get around to it (as punishment for your ignorance) bye bye.

I frequent but have never posted to a gaming board of any kind anywhere but to see some of the attitudes around here about this issue it is really disturbing.

Any bets on when Valve will give an update on the fallout and end result of this incident?

The way they've been so quiet so far (Gabe only commented once it was out in the open) I bet they'll keep quiet.

I'm betting HL2 is now early (Jan-Feb?) 2004...even if they ship as-is, they've got to come up with some kind of contingency plan for when those hacks start flying their way.

Supporter of the "A fredster By Any Other Name Is Still The Same" fan club.

http://www.hybridsoundsystem.com/

All I want to know is whether I should turn off steam? I mean, from what I've heard the source code to Steam is in there as well. So is there a giant hole in my computer or not?!?!

Valve should answer this now, and officially, because hackers are fast!

Oh, and now that the source is out in the open,

Good luck avoiding people blabbing about the details they are gleaming from the code.

Any bets on when Valve will give an update on the fallout and end result of this incident?

How about odds of the thieves being caught?



-TPFKAS2S
http://www.braglio.org

Hey guys sorry for the off topic question but does anyone know what happened with that Half Life 2 benchmark that was supposed to be released on Sept 30th ?

Some people say it was a rumor. Some people say it was for press only.

If it's out there, it wasn't officially released to the public.

Oh, and now that the source is out in the open, everyone have fun running exes from complete strangers called "HL2 Benchmark".

Supporter of the "A fredster By Any Other Name Is Still The Same" fan club.

http://www.hybridsoundsystem.com/

I will reiterate that some here need to acquire a higher level of morals and values, nevermind maturity. You don't deserve to be called a "gamer" and please don't lump me in with your "gaming community", I want no part of it.

Hey guys sorry for the off topic question but does anyone know what happened with that Half Life 2 benchmark that was supposed to be released on Sept 30th ?

"So cheating and hacking is a non-issue, any game code dependant hack is easily thwarted with just minor updates."

That's an odd statement, since minor updates haven't been able to stop non-game dependant hacks, why would it stop these?