June 10, 200421 yr Valve announces Half-Life 2 code theft arrestsDeveloper of the much-anticipated and delayed shooter sequel reveals that an international wave of arrests have been made. The Half-Life 2 code theft saga entered a new chapter today when Valve Software announced that a series of arrests had been made in the case. According to Valve, suspects in several countries had been taken into custody in relation to charges stemming from the theft of the Half-Life 2 code, the distribution of the code, and the break-in into Valve's network. Valve CEO Gabe Newell credited gamers with providing the information that led to the arrests. It was extraordinary to watch how quickly and how cleverly gamers were able to unravel what are traditionally unsolvable problems for law enforcement related to this kind of cyber-crime," he said in a statement. "Everyone here at Valve is once again reminded of how much we owe to the gaming community." However, while Valve announced the arrests today, it was unclear when they actually occurred. Valve's statement on the matter--e-mailed to the press today--quoted Newell as saying, "Within a few days of the announcement of the break-in, the online gaming community had tracked down those involved." The FBI's Northwest Cyber Crime Task Force, the law-enforcement agency overseeing the code theft investigation, also divulged little information. When asked by GameSpot if it had made any arrests, the media contact at the task force's Seattle, Washington, headquarters said simply, "We did." However, when pressed for more information on the case--such as how many people in the US were arrested, where were they apprehended--the agent declined to say anything other than that arrests had been made. "Beyond that we cannot comment," he said. News of the Half-Life 2 arrests comes after months of rumors about law-enforcement activity on the case. In January, a number of computer experts in the San Francisco area reported having their hardware seized by FBI agents on the grounds that they were involved in the theft. Several weeks ago, unconfirmed reports from Germany said the author of the Phatbot Trojan worm was also involved in the theft. In both instances, neither Valve nor the authorities offered any comment. GameSpot will have more details on this developing story as they become available. By Tor Thorsen -- GameSpotPOSTED: 06/10/04 12:51PM PST
June 11, 200421 yr Good!Now I bet some of the people that downloaded it are slightly worried not for the simple reason of downloading it but for someone kicking in their door thinking they may have been the one that helped spread it. Dont worry just clicking delete doesnt work.....They have some cool programs that recovers parts of that kind of stuff years later after a few formats. :(Glad I am not you.....
June 11, 200421 yr Use an electoro magnet guys, it kills everything... well it is supposed to. otherwise dump you hd in the local pond or burry it in your garden.or you can just RUN RUN RUN
June 11, 200421 yr Yeah...try a magnet...that will work...Ever heard of electron microscopes?We are coming...hehehestart watching out your window....paranoid yet....hehehehe...sucks to be you.Oh I love to screw with people..... lol
June 11, 200421 yr Good! Now I bet some of the people that downloaded it are slightly worried not for the simple reason of downloading it but for someone kicking in their door thinking they may have been the one that helped spread it. Dont worry just clicking delete doesnt work.....They have some cool programs that recovers parts of that kind of stuff years later after a few formats. Glad I am not you..... then you obviously dont know how to format.
June 11, 200421 yr Ever heard of electron microscopes? Electron microscope to recover data? :roll: ID LIKE TO SEE THAT in the works. :roll: If data gets formatted and overwritten few times nothings gonna get out. Magnetic domains will get reoriented too many times to get anything useful.
June 11, 200421 yr i have seen data recovered from a hard drive burned to try to gert rid of evidence guys.... you dont stand much chance with an electro magnet...maybe 16molar H2SO4
June 11, 200421 yr IMHO a 12 gauge is pretty good at erasing data that would be very effictive, but i would prefere 12 pounds of C4
June 11, 200421 yr i have seen data recovered from a hard drive burned to try to gert rid of evidence guys.... you dont stand much chance with an electro magnet... maybe 16molar H2SO4 lol, sulfuric acid would work, then use the 12 pounds of C4 lol
June 12, 200421 yr roll your eyes all you want. I know what I am talking about. I have pulled data off much better hackers computers than most you know I am sure. When they get out ask them what we can do. You may be waiting a while however :(Oh yeah the electron-microsope....we have those over here. Yes they can be used but are only in the most extreme cases when data needs to be recovered. It requires being sent to FBI in Washington. I think Secret service also has one to do that but I am not 100% sure about that.So before you jump up with expert tips on how to reformat you may want to take note to someone who has done that type of thing before.
June 15, 200421 yr Statecop is right. A Year ago, afer i have formatted and even make new partitions a few times, i even found some old pictures, that i thought that never exists anymore on my harddisk. And the old system that was on the harddisk was WIN 95 and every windows systems that was comming out later. There are some nice programs to scan deeply into your harddisks. In my case, i was lucky to find some pics from a usa and canada holiday, that i thought i never will be able to recover again. Today you can even recover pics from the card in your digital camera. The best way to clear data, is to destroy the harddisk completely. I have no software or data on my harddisks that were against any law, so its not a problem for me.. Lol..
June 15, 200421 yr I pleed the fifthbesides PUNISHER > FBI I think all my friends are going to jail if they started prosecuting HL2 downloaders.But who cares, I think they'll be lucky to convict more than a few people...peace out,PUNISHER
June 15, 200421 yr ehehe, I remember the good ole days when every bios could perform a low level format of drives.
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