HBO Hackers Reportedly Leak Next ‘Game of Thrones’ Script, Exec Emails
Game of Thrones’ leak of Season 7’s “The Spoils of War” turned out an international error rather than consequence of the network’s recent hack, but the group responsible has designs of their own. Another round of leaks reportedly reveals detailed descriptions of Thrones’ “Eastwatch,” as well as multiple documents from a top executive’s email.
The Hollywood Reporter reveals that the hackers responsible for last week’s leak have sent HBO a ransom video, demonstrating their capabilities with a script summary of next Sunday’s Game of Thrones episode and a month of emails from one company executive. HBO boss Richard Plepler previously stated that “We do not believe that our e-mail system as a whole has been compromised, but the forensic review is ongoing.”
That message was more or less reiterated in an update from HBO sources:
HBO believed that further leaks might emerge from this cyber incident when we confirmed it last week. As we said, the forensic review is ongoing. While it has been reported that a number of emails have been made public, the review to date has not given us a reason to believe that our e-mail system as a whole has been compromised.
The video ransom to Plepler stated, “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).” It also features another half-gigabyte of the reported 1.5 terabytes stolen, while additional threats include (via Wired) “countless HBO internal documents, including emails, financial balance sheets, employment agreements, and marketing-strategy PDFs.”
Also reportedly among the threatened leaks are unreleased episodes of Room 104 and Insecure season 2, the new series from Silicon Valley creator Mike Judge and various portions of Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 9.
As with the 2014 Sony Pictures hack, this remains an ongoing development. Stay tuned for the latest in the meantime.