4:24 PM

Statement from Microsoft Regarding Illegal Posting of Windows Source Code:

REDMOND, Wash., Updated Feb. 13, 2004 — On Thursday, Microsoft became aware that portions of the Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0 source code were illegally made available on the Internet. It’s illegal for third parties to post, make available to others, or download Microsoft source code, and we are actively investigating this issue with law-enforcement agencies. Microsoft will take all appropriate legal actions to protect our intellectual property.

At this time there is no known impact on customers. We continue to be committed to protecting our customers and their networks, and we will take any appropriate steps to ensure that we meet this commitment. Our investigation has shown this was not the result of any breach of Microsoft’s corporate network or internal security, or from our Shared Source Initiative program.

All joking aside, holy moly, what a disaster. Security through obscurity relies upon obscurity, and now that’s gone.

It goes without saying - if you work on any open-source project, or ever want to work on such a project, don’t look at the source code.