Hackers demand millions in ransom for stolen Game of Thrones data after releasing upcoming episode synopsis as well as a month's worth of emails from HBO vice president
- Hackers on Monday released stolen HBO files and demanded ransom
- Trove of stolen data synopsis of next week's episode and month of stolen emails
- Using the name 'Mr Smith' the hackers demand millions of dollars in Bitcoin
Hackers using the name 'Mr Smith' have posted a fresh cache of stolen HBO files online and demanded that HBO pay a ransom of several million dollars to prevent further releases.
The data dump on Monday included a strange video synopsis of the plot of next week's episode of 'Game of Thrones', and a month's worth of email from the account of Leslie Cohen, HBO's vice president for film programming.
DailyMail.com is not reporting the detailed contents of the stolen data, including plot points of upcoming episodes.
Hackers using the name 'Mr Smith' have posted stolen HBO files online and demanded that HBO pay a ransom of several million dollars. A still from Sunday's episode is seen
HBO, which previously acknowledged the theft of 'proprietary information,' said it's continuing to investigate and is working with police and cybersecurity experts
The data dump also included internal documents, including a report of legal claims against the network and job offer letters to top executives.
'We successfully breached into your huge network. … HBO was one of our difficult targets to deal with but we succeeded (it took about 6 months),' the hackers wrote in a video message to HBO CEO Richard Plepler, which was also sent to the Hollywood Reporter.
HBO, which previously acknowledged the theft of 'proprietary information,' said it's continuing to investigate and is working with police and cybersecurity experts.
The network said Monday that it still doesn't believe that its email system as a whole has been compromised.
This is the second data dump from the purported hacker.
The leak of Sunday's episode online two days before it aired was not related to to the hack, and instead originated from a distribution partner in India.
Those behind the HBO hack claim to have more data, including scripts, upcoming episodes of HBO shows and movies, and information damaging to HBO
So far the HBO hack data dumps have been limited, falling well short of the chaos inflicted on Sony in 2014.
In that attack, hackers unearthed thousands of embarrassing emails and released personal information, including salaries and social security numbers, of nearly 50,000 current and former Sony employees.
Those behind the HBO hack claim to have more data, including scripts, upcoming episodes of HBO shows and movies, and information damaging to HBO.
In the video directed to HBO CEO Richard Plepler, 'Mr. Smith' used white text on a black background to threaten further disclosures if HBO doesn't pay up.
To stop the leaks, the purported hackers demanded 'our 6 month salary in bitcoin,' which they implied is at least $6million.
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