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I don't know the full details, but apparently someone at Cloud Imperium Games (Chris Roberts's company) inadvertantly provided a URL to 40 GB worth of unsecured data. And, unsurprisingly, that data was promptly copied. Part of the data is either Cry-engine source code (possibly including some proprietary stuff), or compiled Cry-engine stuff. Reports are contradictory. The former could reportedly get CIG in trouble, depending on what's in it. The latter isn't as big of a deal. Also in the data - and potentially more interesting for anyone who isn't a coder - was a large number of previously unseen images of ships that will appear in Squadron 42 (i.e. the single-player part of Star Citizen). I'm not providing links, because it's late here and I'm tired. But if you're interested in taking a look (and from what I'm hearing, the ships in question are apparently getting a lot of people very excited), then you could try dropping by the Star Citizen Reddit page.

Again, from what I'm hearing, most of these ships have not appeared on the official Star Citizen website. They're apparently primarily a mix of Vanduul ships and UEE military craft, and appear to be intended for Squadron 42.



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My primary source so far has been the very long thread over on the official forums. For the time being, CIG is allowing people to talk about the leak on the forum, but not post links.

From what I've been able to piece together, someone (I think it was a CIG employee who goes by the nic DiscoLando) took a photo, and posted it online. Some people over on Reddit noticed that the photo contained part of a URL, and were able to figure out the rest of the URL. This URL led to a public torrent site, which contained a very large file (48GB, according to some statements). According to the Redditors, they thought this was part of a viral marketing campaign... right up until they actually opened the file. It was then that they realized that they weren't supposed to be accessing the file.

The Reddit group is attempting belated damage control with CIG, and has largely limited itself to showing leaked images of spacecraft. While this is largely "safe" (aside from questions regarding the legality of the initial file access), there's been speculation that at least one of the leaked ships is a spoiler for the Squadron 42 storyline. The file also contains a very detailed (as in, more detailed than the general public should know without lots of in-game exploration) star map, completely with unexplored systems and jump point locations. 4chan, being 4chan, has run with this leak. At least one person over there has successfully gotten an fps map up and running using materials from the file.

The most problematic issues for CIG are if the file ends up containing proprietary Cry-Engine tools that are not supposed to be released to the general public, information that could make it easier to hack the servers, and account information.

As it's the Memorial Day weekend, it will probably take CIG longer than would otherwise be the case to put out an official statement regarding the incident.