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Valve Tried to Trick Half Life 2 Hacker Into Fake Job Interview

Wired Write: After the secret source code for its then-unreleased shooter Half Life 2 showed up on file sharing services in 2003, game-maker Valve Software cooked up an elaborate ruse with the FBI targeting the German hacker suspected in the leak, even setting up a fake job interview in an effort to lure him to the United States for arrest.

The gambit ultimately failed, and Axel "Ago" Gembe remained safely in Germany. He was indicted last month in Los Angeles on new charges of creating the Agobot malware, and sharing it with a crew of U.S. hackers who used it to stage denial-of-service attacks in 2003.

In September 2003, the source code for the much-anticipated Half Life 2 game turned up online, and Valve's managing director, Gabe Newell, revealed that the company's network had been breached. In a post to the company's web forum, Newell asked for gamer's assistance in finding the hackers responsible.

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blog.wired.com

Fishy Fingers - contributor
Published: 413 days 19 hours ago | News | PC | Industry News

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Lord Anubis - 413 days 19 hours ago

1 -

pretty smart fellow not taking the bait.

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Muppetmeat - 413 days 1 hour ago

1.1 - In other news

"In a post to the company's web forum, Newell asked for gamer's assistance in finding the hackers responsible"

- and for gamers everywhere to send him more cheeseburgers as his weight had declined to a dangerously thin (for him) 600 pounds.

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omodis420 - 413 days 19 hours ago

2 - HA

Thats smart

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xhairs9 - 413 days 2 hours ago

2.1 -

See valve, don't fk with the PS3, or you get the horns, sucka.

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y0haN - 413 days 19 hours ago

3 -

This is like.. 4 year old news.

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Ghoul - 413 days 18 hours ago

3.1 -

sometimes a "news" or contribution on n4g is worthy to point out. Just see it as an article.

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whitto - 413 days 19 hours ago

4 -

you would have to be bit stupid really lol, like someone randomly inviting you for a job interview... from another country ?

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ice_prophecy - 413 days 18 hours ago

4.1 -

It happens.

Just need to reed up the company you are dealing with. But international firms usually have offices in the country to act as buffer

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ice_prophecy - 413 days 19 hours ago

5 -

I'd imagine that you'd have to be a brilliant lad to be able to write and comprehend complex security codes by the age of 21. Imagine what he could do if used his skills in a more socially 'acceptable' manner.

Probably be in a fairly high position in IT Security. Jobs like that pay VERY well.

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comm13 - 413 days 18 hours ago

5.1 -

I think he is using his skills in a socially beneficial manner as it is.

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ice_prophecy - 413 days 18 hours ago

5.2 -

I think you missed my point.
re: Quotations marks around the word acceptable?

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Yi-Long - 413 days 19 hours ago

6 - SO basically... here's a kid hacker...

... who hasnt really done all that much harm, apart from breaking the law... and as a result they've been trying to get this guy for many many years, thus costing a lot more than what he actually caused in damage!?

Hey, nice going(!)

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solar - 413 days 18 hours ago

7 -

i have my run in's with the myg0t hackers on CS, CS:S, BF series and in my clan's own Ventrilo channel. they know what they are doing. i didnt know they had a hand in the HL2 leak however. very interesting stuff.

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kalel333 - 413 days 18 hours ago

7.1 -

that's very different lol, the guys on cs source hacking, most of them didn't program their game hacks. You can find them on google easy, most of them are like kids wanting to have GOD mode on cs lol . But I get what you're saying, his group makes some hacks for the game. But it's not like they tell the people to use it lol anyways steam ban is always nice :)

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solar - 413 days 18 hours ago

7.2 -

oh dont get me wrong i know that hacks are easily accessible for CS. but ive had my run in's with myg0t across a number of different avenues. thats all im saying :D

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kalel333 - 413 days 18 hours ago

7.3 -

haha alright.

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villevalorox - 413 days 18 hours ago

8 -

I have not heard about this in for ever lol. like years.

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kalel333 - 413 days 18 hours ago

9 -

Tats right baby F* the police lol . I'm glad he didn't get caught, people get imprisoned for like 10 , 20 years for the stupidest thing ! So what , the dude is sharing information about the source code of some applications? Big F* deal if the company really wanted to keep that kind of stuff on the down low they should just have better security or just have a closed network instead of having it connected to the internet. Instead of trying to lure this kid into 20 years of prison , who really didn't kill anyone maybe made another greedy company lose a little money, they should try to catch real criminals like murderers, terrorists, rapist, pedophiles,ect...

Sure what he did is wrong according to "the LAW", but ask yourselves did he really do something that bad? He's like the kid in high school that get's a hold of all the tests for an exam and gives out a few copies... He should so go to Prison for that :0, no... The whole thing just blows over within a few months. Same thing here , F*, I can't believe they are still trying to catch him, LET IT GO!

Anyways, copyright or not, stealing or not, it's just a freaking piece of software or equipement, people won't die from it, they'll still make millions/billions .

Cheers,

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solar - 413 days 18 hours ago

9.1 -

so if you put 40 million dollars into a project and someone comes and steals it you wouldnt want them to be prosecuted to the fullest extend of the law? im sure you would. and you have the perfect pirate attitude. im guessing your a thief?

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kalel333 - 413 days 18 hours ago

9.2 -

haha :p, of course I'd be pissed but it would in some way be my fault for not having upped the security for such a big investement. But I mean I think cyber "criminals" , most of them shouldn't have to do the time that they are doing right now. Ok if the guy was stealing money via a worm collecting login information of banking accounts ( there's one running in the wild right now), that's different because it is such on a massive scale and affects the lives of some people who can barely live through everyday life with what they have. But come on this software, pirated software is a big market i know , and it makes company lose alot of money, but it ain't like it's killing them. I just think it's sad that someone can go to prison for such a long time for something so "materialistic". Yes I acknowdledge the work that went into the developpment , ect... but give him like a year or 2 not the full extent of the law, and ban him from using computers or something lol.

by the way all my games here are originals, never download a game because I know how tough it is to make a bad or good one lol .

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Leathersoup - 413 days 18 hours ago

9.3 -

I'm going to have to disagree with you. The people who work at Valve are are just as affected as the people who's money is in a bank. They've invested time and effort into creating a product. To say that it is excusable to steal that information is by proving that the security is faulty would be equal to saying it's ok to kill the armed guards at a bank because when you do you're proving that their security is faulty.

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solar - 413 days 18 hours ago

9.4 - @ 9.3

you are so right. its the same as going to a car dealership, seeing 100 of the same type of car, stealing one and saying "well they have 99 left, they can survive with one less". its the brain of a pirate. no need to argue with one.

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kalel333 - 413 days 18 hours ago

9.5 -

haha now were going onto the infinite grey line of right and wrong lol. I'm not saying that I would do the same. I've never stolen anything in my life because I know that I wouldn't want someone to steal from me, I don't do anything to others something that i know I don't want to be done on me. But all I'm saying is that he did not go into the valve workplace armed with machine guns, grenades and knifes asking for the source codes, he didn't kill any guards, or anything like that. + it's not like Half-Life 2 wasn't succesful in stores, it still sells great even today, with epiosdes,cs s, tf2 ect... I'm just looking at the extent of the damage, that's all.

I do agree with both of you still.

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solar - 413 days 17 hours ago

9.6 -

i respect you if you are not a pirate. stealing a 40 dollar investment is not the same a stealing a human life...but consequences should still be forth coming. HL2 was a blockbuster, gigantic title. i can see why someone would want to be "the one" to know what was going on at Valve at the time. bragging rights if you will. a crime is a crime.

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Leathersoup - 413 days ago

9.7 -

Loss of human life isn't even what I was going for. You could use the same argument by saying that it is acceptable for someone to take a bulldozer and C4 to an empty bank (closed for the night).

Just because the walls of the bank won't hold up, doesn't mean that I should have right to the contents because their "security wasn't strong enough".

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itani - 413 days 8 hours ago

10 -

"I never broke the law, I am the law!"

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Fanboi - 413 days 7 hours ago

11 - Nice try Valve.

Worst plan, ever. Thats like the Bush administration trying to lure Osama into the US for an anti-terrorism job at the Homeland Security department. Yeah that should work Gabe.

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NickIni - 413 days 6 hours ago

11.1 -

That's genius.

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thedarkvault - 412 days 22 hours ago

12 - duh

would you really expect to be hired by a company that you cost millions of dollars and years of work?
I mean even if you somehow got onboard, anyone who worked on HL2 is gonna kill you

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Erdrick - 412 days 20 hours ago

13 -

its copyright infringement, the dude didn't steal anything. as such he shouldn't deserve the same amount of jail time as a freakn murderer. sheesh!

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TheDesperado - 412 days 19 hours ago

14 - DIE VALVE DIE

DIEDIEDIE They don't deserve to be a company on this planet. And they'll probably be devoured once Gabe Newell runs out of cheetos.

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P - 413 days 19 hours ago

1 -

And here I was thinking Valve weren't dumb

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waseem335 - 413 days 18 hours ago

1.1 -

their pretty clever offerin a job interview to a guy who hacked into their account, bet the german guy was sayin in his head "valve now where hav i heard dat b4, wait lemme check ma harddrive"

serious!! r they stupid!! they really fink a guy wud even think of goin for an interview at the place they hacked n stole from!!! serious valve bout time u take ur head out ur ass!!

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solar - 413 days 18 hours ago

1.2 -

5 AAA titles are dumb? refresh my memory a bit m'kay?

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DNAgent - 413 days 15 hours ago

2 - Valve fails yet again.

What else is new?

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jack who - 413 days 15 hours ago

2.1 -

wow

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3 Floptimus Prime | 413 days 14 hours ago - comment has been reported as SPAM -

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demondoor - 413 days 12 hours ago

4 -

bah if you read it you'll notice this was in 2003, back in a more innocent time. the job "interview" they offered was fake to try and get the hacker to go to America so he could be arrested

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