Gadgetopia

Thieves steal playable version of Half-Life 2: Valve’s nightmare gets worse — enough code was stolen to compile the game and run it.

“When hackers broke into the computing system of Valve Software, they stole more than just the source code to Half-Life 2. They also stole enough game maps and other components to put together a playable build of the game. Today, five days after the first leak, they have released that build. […]

Somewhere on or around Sept. 11, hackers broke into the email of Valve founder Gabe Newell, possibly utilizing a security hole in Microsoft Outlook. Eight days later, they made a copy of the game’s source tree. Keystroke recorders were also installed on the computers of several other employees. The invasion was methodical and seems deliberately aimed at the developer.”