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Hackers breach Electronic Arts, stealing game source code and tools

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Re: Hackers breach Electronic Arts, stealing game source code and tools

#81

Post by barbecue_sauce »

rvba wrote: post #77
DonHopkins wrote: post #61

It reminds me of when unsuspecting thieves accidentally stole a container of Iridium-192 used for industrial radiography from a lab in Mexico, and were eventually arrested and taken to the hospital to be treated for radiation burns. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-32332271 The FBI should keep an eye on hospitals for anyone showing up with burning bleeding eyes and a swelling itching brains and melting fa…

How is this connected to stealing source code of a computer game?

Because EA makes bad games.

Re: Hackers breach Electronic Arts, stealing game source code and tools

#82

Post by toyg »

whiddershins wrote: post #57
toyg wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the wider point is that "intellectual property" cannot effectively be "stolen", only "unlawfully obtained or reproduced". Nobody is ever deprived of IP or even its legally-created exploitation rights; it's only the market value of such IP that is allegedly affected. I reckon we need a new word. "Pirating" has sort-of taken that space but it's not really good and it only covers distribution. It should be something…

If value is transferred by force, this is theft.

But there is no way to ascertain if value has actually been transferred. It's just fingers in the wind. EA could sell their games tomorrow and make exactly the same money they would have made before the hack.

Re: Hackers breach Electronic Arts, stealing game source code and tools

#83

Post by oarsinsync »

khazhoux wrote: post #47
mercora wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

for me stealing implies change of possession. this does not apply here. what might have been taken is the possibility to monetize it the way they imagined or that they had been hurt by the PR afterwards and similar things. but nothing has been stolen everything is still in place were it was before and nothing is missing except for some of the confidence in their infrastructure security.

"Hello, I'm calling to report that the 16-digit sequence, expiration date, and 3-digit security code of my credit card have been replicated and are now known to persons whom I did not give permission to utilize." "Sir, are you calling because your credit card was stolen?" " It was not stolen!! I still retain possession."

So I'm reasonably sure that if you dont cancel the card after losing possession, you can be held liable for transactions that occur with the card at that point. Especially if your PIN is also compromised.

You're not liable for transactions that occur fraudulently when you still retain possession of the card.

So yeah, it's an important distinction.

Re: Hackers breach Electronic Arts, stealing game source code and tools

#84

Post by DonHopkins »

rvba wrote: post #77
DonHopkins wrote: post #61

It reminds me of when unsuspecting thieves accidentally stole a container of Iridium-192 used for industrial radiography from a lab in Mexico, and were eventually arrested and taken to the hospital to be treated for radiation burns. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-32332271 The FBI should keep an eye on hospitals for anyone showing up with burning bleeding eyes and a swelling itching brains and melting fa…

How is this connected to stealing source code of a computer game?

I'm under NDA so I can't tell you. ;) Just be thankful that The Sims doesn't have a "View Source" menu.

Here's an example of some highly toxic code they wasn't intended to escape the lab:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC52jE60KjY&t=7m15s

Re: Hackers breach Electronic Arts, stealing game source code and tools

#85

Post by HPsquared »

DonHopkins wrote: post #61

It reminds me of when unsuspecting thieves accidentally stole a container of Iridium-192 used for industrial radiography from a lab in Mexico, and were eventually arrested and taken to the hospital to be treated for radiation burns. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-32332271 The FBI should keep an eye on hospitals for anyone showing up with burning bleeding eyes and a swelling itching brains and melting fa…

Archive of the covenant?

Re: Hackers breach Electronic Arts, stealing game source code and tools

#87

Post by barbecue_sauce »

miav wrote: post #52

There have been multiple attacks like this and it seems the stolen code is usually made public in the end. I presume people will look at it and reuse some concepts and I wonder if this could lead to the technical state of the industry becoming better as a whole.

I don't think EA has any tech that's sufficiently advanced over something like Unreal Engine, which is already source available. It's at least not perceptible in the games they publish.

Re: Hackers breach Electronic Arts, stealing game source code and tools

#89

Post by hnick »

sanxiyn wrote: post #4

> "Anytime source code gets leaked it's not good," said Ekram Ahmed, a spokesperson for the cybersecurity firm Check Point. "Hackers can comb through the code, identify deeper flaws for exploit, and sell that previous code on the dark web to malicious threat actors." This seems like a strong argument against using open source codes. Should I take this argument seriously and avoid them?

The real win here would be access to server side code - account management, loot box rates, plus garden variety buffer overflows and hacks. Open or closed doesn't matter as much if it runs on a device you can control, you can always reverse engineer it. But for code you'd never get to run on your own device, you have more limited tools at your disposal. Even if they only got binaries of the server side code it'd still open up a lot of avenues.

Re: Hackers breach Electronic Arts, stealing game source code and tools

#90

Post by jart »

tovej wrote: post #20
sanxiyn wrote: post #4

> "Anytime source code gets leaked it's not good," said Ekram Ahmed, a spokesperson for the cybersecurity firm Check Point. "Hackers can comb through the code, identify deeper flaws for exploit, and sell that previous code on the dark web to malicious threat actors." This seems like a strong argument against using open source codes. Should I take this argument seriously and avoid them?

It's a question of information asymmetry. It's always easier to be on the attacking side of cyber security. If the attackers have good intel, and the defense isn't organized, their work is much easier. With (popular) open source projects, there are hundreds of eyeballs looking at the source and trying to fix security issues before they can be exploited. The closed source project is typically less secure, but attacker…

The logical conclusion of your statement is that the strongest software would be projects that are collaboratively maintained by a large number of people, similar to an open source project, except behind the veil of confidentiality at a big company.
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