HBO Hacker News Update
Hackers going by the name of “Mr. Smith” delivered a five-minute ransom video to HBO listing demands and repercussions
HBO hacker news continued through the first few weeks of August. HBO was hacked on July 31. Almost 1.5 terabytes of data were taken in a July cyber-attack. Initially, it was believed that the fourth episode of the seventh season Game of Thrones was leaked by hackers. That report turned out to be false. The episode was not leaked but released prematurely by Star India, HBO’s distribution partner. Instead, the hacker took data that contained emails, employment agreements, and balance sheets, and unreleased scripts from Game of Thrones. The intellectual property theft also included The Deuce, Barry, Room 104, Ballers, Vice Principals, and the Steven Spielberg documentary. Portions of the stolen information have been leaked on two separate occasions. A second partial data release occurred on August 8.
Hackers going by the name of “Mr. Smith” delivered a five-minute ransom video for HBO CEO Richard Plepler. The hackers demanded a ransom of $6 million in bitcoin in exchange for the unreleased data. HBO agreed to pay $250k in a show of good faith. This was a stall tactic, however, and HBO so far has paid nothing to recover the hacked data.
The video can be viewed in this Mashable post HBO hacker post
The Mr. Smith hackers end the video by with two possible mottos: “Winter is Coming — HBO is Falling,” or “Winter is Coming — HBO is standing & EverLasting!”
On August 17, HBO Twitter account was hacked along with social media accounts associated with top HBO shows. The responsible group, OurMine, does not appear to be related to the Mr. Smith hackers. OurMine tweeted to HBO’s corporate account, but that tweet was later removed apparently when HBO regained control of the account.
There is still quite a large amount of hacked data and it is not known if and when Mr.’s moth plans on dropping it.
