“In the meantime, senior Microsoft executives around the world
were being chased down by reporters eager to find out what really
happened. The guy who got Steve Ballmer to admit that hackers had
looked at source code had to track him down in a Swedish
hallway.”
“Unfortunately, even when reporters managed to corner Microsoft
managers or other “experts” they asked all the wrong
questions.”
“Reporters asked whether the hackers had somehow ‘compromised’
the company’s software by taking a peek at files of source code. Of
course, Ballmer and all the others solemnly maintained that nothing
had been compromised. Such a silly question. Source code,
particularly beta or alpha level stuff, is going to be of little
use to anyone except Microsoft, unless the hackers also got most of
the accompanying documentation and related libraries. Such code
certainly isn’t going to be “held hostage,” as the Wall Street
Journal suggested, or be ‘auctioned off to criminal elements.'”