The winter has finally arrived and fans were elated with the premiere of Game of Thrones. But with the show on the air, there has been a lot of rumors around the corner.
Hackers always pay their debts ?#GoT #GameofThrones7 #HBOHack pic.twitter.com/vL5CInyEdV
— Ebtihaj (@ebtihajkhan) August 1, 2017
The episodes even came before the official show came on the air. This time the hacking game went too far! Hackers of US television network HBO have released personal phone numbers of Game of Thrones actors and demanded ransoms in millions of amount to prevent from releasing further details of Actors and episodes of the show. What a rough business!
Yikes! Not cool. "HBO hackers upload unseen 'Game of Thrones' episodes and more online" https://t.co/44bNNyDa7s #GameOfThrones #HBOHack pic.twitter.com/tQDYUUzxpX
— Kristina Pietro (@kepietro) August 2, 2017
They uploaded a five minutes video later where they called themselves MR.SMITH and asked HBO chief executive Richard Plepler to pay them within three days or the company will have to suffer a lot.
They not only have episodes of Game of Thrones but according to sources, they are believed to have data of other shows that are scheduled to air on 2018 even! They claim to have taken 1.5TB of data.
They also released a file of 3.4GB which consists of HBO’s internal network and administrator passwords, draft scripts from five Game of Thrones episodes, including this week’s installment, and a month’s worth of emails from HBO’s vice president for film programming, Leslie Cohen. They claim that HBO is their 17th target and that only three of their targets have refused to pay.
HBO hacked: Games of Thrones spoilers & other HBO shows leaked, by @PrivacyFanatic – #HBOhack #GameofThronesLeak https://t.co/ci7UJLWzpQ pic.twitter.com/pQb1Wda5kX
— S Stalker (@WebsenseShaun) August 1, 2017
Their demands as described by an HBO official is “our six-month salary in Bitcoin”.
According to the hackers, they make $12 million to $14 million each year by carrying out breaching of websites. They also declared that they would only deal with the HBO Chief Executive, Richard and would send the details about the payment in just a single letter. They claim to have spent $500,000 a year purchasing so called zero-day exploits that have helped them create loopholes and enter the network. Such a thing is not even known to Microsoft and other leading companies which took these hackers just six months to carry out.
One document appears to contain the confidential cast list for Game of Thrones, listing personal telephone numbers and email addresses for actors such as Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, and Emilia Clarke. It also has other data written as confidential over it!
Call me. #GoT #set #phone #meme #HBOHack #hbo pic.twitter.com/pgJSLTVs5n
— Alexander Fechner (@knighthimself) July 31, 2017
Hackers wrote,
“Our demand is clear and Non-Negotiable: We want XXXX dollars to stop leaking your Data,” the letter reads. “HBO spends 12 million for Market Research and 5 million for GOT7 advertisements. So consider us another budget for your advertisements! Leakage will be your worst nightmare.So make a wise decision! It ends with an image of the “Night King” villain from Game of Thrones with his arms raised, the word “standing” in one hand and “falling” in the other.”
Live footage of me hearing about the #HBOhack and Game of Thrones spoilers pic.twitter.com/NswVBwMlc2
— Eryn McCabe ? (@Eryn_NotErin) July 31, 2017
HBO is looking into the matter and executing it with Police and Cybercrime experts.
