Why not hire crackers/hackers?

[Jarcin]

Maybe I'm missing a part of the gaming industry, which I wouldn't doubt, but a statement by KaKaRoTo made me wonder:

Why don't game companies hire crackers/hackers to find every flaw, every backdoor, every little bit of fun they can? I mean, people do this out of boredom, imagine how well they would do with payment?

Again it doesn't seem like that ISN'T in the industry, but when I can roam a forum a day after release and find out every crack or thing to give me the edge that I can the day after the release of a game. ONE day, ONE day and this information has gotten out.

It seems like a lot of people could get good work for what they love, and game developers could find ways to make their games more secure and equal.

Quote in question:

Long story short, this is what I do, I let people gain access to the hardware they own, what I do is 100% legal in my country (Canada), and it is equivalent to the recent DMCA Exemption for jailbreaking phones. Now, if someone uses that to do nasty things, you have two people to blame :
1 ? the stupid kid who did it
2 ? the developers of MW2 that didn?t write their program correctly.

Source: http://ps3mfw.com/?p=134

 

[emeraldrafael]

SO.... You want programmers to fight hackers in the company until the game is perfect? Just so when someone hacks it outside they (the programmers and developers) can get blamed because they couldnt beat the team of payroll people?

I see a lot of pissed off employees who doubt their worth and put out shit work.

Besides, most hackers like to do stuff like that so they can use it for personal gain and enjoyment. Or cause they're bored. I enjoy going to movies, but if I was paid to go see movies, then its no longer fun or engaging, its a job. And then there's rules to what you can and cant do.

 

[darth.pixie]

Alright, first of all, hackers and crackers won't give themselves away for anything. They're paranoid and for good reason.

Second. A code will always be broken. Always. You can encrypt it, use obscure language, do voodoo spells for it...it will be cracked. Today, tomorrow or in two years, but it will. Hackers won't change that. So...that would be useless.

 

[KiKiweaky]

They probably do with their own crowd of programmers most of whom are highly talented individuals, they probably test everything they can think of it only takes somebody to think of something that you never did to break it.

Testing everything isnt really possible timewise either, beta testing and such is a great way to find flaws in game before a general release but gameplay/setups will evolve over time and nearly always finds things that were missed.

 

[Legion]

So when it gets hacked any way they are the first suspects?

I see what you mean, but it wouldn't work.

 

[Something Amyss]

Why don't game companies hire crackers/hackers to find every flaw, every backdoor, every little bit of fun they can? I mean, people do this out of boredom, imagine how well they would do with payment?

Except, of course, this would further delay release schedules, it would require a lot of extra work on the progammers' end, and would consume a lot of resources. Now, that last one happens when they try and fight piracy after the fact anyway, but the first two are kind of a big deal.

Games are already released incomplete both because of time and because devs complain that "doing our job is hard."

Imagine if they had to up the ante?

Also, would you want to wait an extra year just for a "secure" game?

 

[Lukeje]

Even better: all games could go open source. Then the hackers could not only find the bugs/security holes but fix them too. But that's never going to happen.

 

[Aeshi]

Because that would be like hiring people with Pyromania as Firefighters.

 

[Wintermoot]

wont work, they would probaly place a backdoor to help out their friends (AKA they cant be trusted),even IF they work out the backdoors people would find new ways to crack the game

 

[Madman123456]

making something "unhackable" would require quite a lot of People and a long time. Also, those People would have to think of possibilities to close those leaks without the fixes interfering with the rest of the product, without creating new leaks and without using up much of the systems resources.
So most of the time any company is better off just throwing the finished but possibly unsecure product on the Market.
Also, a big system hack can be used for publicity. Playstation gets hacked, everybody knows it. More brand recognition for free. Sure, Sony acts all "evil empire" like, but that is pretty much expected. Microsoft is evil, Sony is evil, so whatever.

 

[JezebelinHell]

There are actually different groups of hackers out there and some of them do work in security. It wasn't unheard of for a good, not destructive/abusive, hacker to end up with a nice job just by proving a company had a breach. They are referred to as white hat hackers. Even some of the bad ones bounced back and forth once they were caught. It really isn't about the money with some of them it is the challenge and no amount of money will keep them from breaking your stuff just for the fun of it especially since a good part of them do not have the ethics to even care.

The problem is being able to afford the "best" of the good ones and since you have others that are so determined to break things it is an ongoing process as nothing can be completely locked down. Basically paying a good hacker to keep up with bad hackers would eventually cost them more than they lose to pirating in the long run. And since the initial hole would remain in the first release of the game it would always be a hole as you cannot really demand that a patch has to be installed. So people will just play that until the next person cracks the patch. They don't mind being a release behind when the program is free.
A few that are making the big bucks legally:
http://www.networkworld.com/slideshows/2010/041510-white-hat-hackers.html#slide1
If you read about each of them you will see that some have had an impact on gaming.

 

[AngelicSven]

White hats, Black hats, Gray hats.
They're a vast majority of people who hack for many different reasons.

As for hiring, I think the US found this hacker back in the 60s who got into the Pentagon's database and hired him to make it hackproof, I'm totally positive on this story as I heard it a long time ago. So, sometimes a Gray hat hacker can snag a job if he does a questionable thing with enough skill. Though Black hats don't take jobs if they're offered, they're just around to make viruses and screw with stuff.

 

[Rachel317]

...they do.
The government hires hackers (on a more important scale, obviously) who have gotten into their systems.
Gaming works the same way. The companies are able to buy their silence (if the fee is high enough).

 

[szaleniec1000]

if someone robs a bank, do you hire them for security

I've heard of this happening.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Even better: all games could go open source. Then the hackers could not only find the bugs/security holes but fix them too. But that's never going to happen.

Gaming utopia and a Utopian society will never be realized in our life time.

Also that wouldn't work OP because no Hacker in their right mind would ever surrender to the risk of the company telling the government about their activities. It wouldn't solve anything either as the code will be broken. It is inevitable and no-one can stop the determination of nerds with time.

 

[zehydra]

Alright, first of all, hackers and crackers won't give themselves away for anything. They're paranoid and for good reason.

Second. A code will always be broken. Always. You can encrypt it, use obscure language, do voodoo spells for it...it will be cracked. Today, tomorrow or in two years, but it will. Hackers won't change that. So...that would be useless.

I think companies would much prefer having a code take two years to crack, rather than right at release.

 

[TerranReaper]

There are actually some companies that hires hackers just because they know how to break in and exploit holes in the system.