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HBO has suffered a colossal cyberattack, where upcoming Game Of Thrones episodes were stolen
HACKERS have targeted HBO – the premium television network behind the likes of Game Of Thrones, WestWorld, Ballers, and more – claiming to have stolen 1.5 terabytes of data from the company.
HBO has suffered a colossal cyberattack, with some 1.5 terabytes of data purportedly stolen from the US company.
According to Entertainment Weekly, upcoming episodes from a number of the studio’s popular shows have been published, alongside the script for the next episode of Game Of Thrones.
The cybercriminals behind this latest attack are believed to have threatened to leak more data soon.
It is unclear whether upcoming episodes of Game Of Thrones season 7 were stolen amongst the 1.5TB haul from the company.
HBO has not confirmed on how much data was stolen, nor is it commenting on the hackers’ claims of what titles they have obtained.
So far, only written material purportedly from next week’s fourth episode of Game of Thrones have appeared online.
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“HBO recently experienced a cyber incident, which resulted in the compromise of proprietary information,” the network confirmed in a written statement.
“We immediately began investigating the incident and are working with law enforcement and outside cybersecurity firms.
“Data protection is a top priority at HBO, and we take seriously our responsibility to protect the data we hold.”
Games Of Thrones leaks are nothing new. Back in 2015, the first four episodes of season five were widely-shared online ahead of the broadcast date.
HBO chairman and CEO Richard Plepler this week sent an email to employees, alerting them about the breach.
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Hackers are believed to have stolen a script for Game Of Thrones season 7 episode 4
“As most of you have probably heard by now, there has been a cyber incident directed at the company which has resulted in some stolen proprietary information, including some of our programming,” he wrote.
“Any intrusion of this nature is obviously disruptive, unsettling, and disturbing for all of us.
“I can assure you that senior leadership and our extraordinary technology team, along with outside experts, are working round the clock to protect our collective interests.
“The efforts across multiple departments have been nothing short of herculean. It is a textbook example of quintessential HBO teamwork.
“The problem before us is unfortunately all too familiar in the world we now find ourselves a part of.
“As has been the case with any challenge we have ever faced, I have absolutely no doubt that we will navigate our way through this successfully.”
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Earlier this year, a hacker penetrated Netflix and leaked episodes from the fifth season of Orange Is The New Black ahead of its air date.
One month later, hackers claimed to have stolen Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and demanded Disney pay a ransom or else the blockbuster would be published online.
Disney Chief Bob Iger later said the hackers’ threat was a hoax.
Game of Thrones fans hoping to download episodes for free from torrent site The Pirate Bay last year were hit with a devastating computer virus.
Following the season 6 premiere last year, ransomware was introduced on The Pirate Bay to coincide with the influx of users looking to download Game Of Thrones episodes.
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Cybercriminals used the popularity of Game Of Thrones to target more people in a malware attack
A fraudulent advertiser on The Pirate Bay used a pop-under advertisement to quietly redirect users and infect them with Cerber ransomware.
Security firm Malwarebytes discovered the threat, which used a victim’s vulnerable browser plugins to silently download a malicious payload to a system.
"Popular torrent site The Pirate Bay was serving ransomware via a malvertising attack this week-end.
"The ad network changes but the modus operandi remains the same," Malwarebytes security researcher Jerome Segura said.
What made this ransomware so dangerous was the fact that users could become infected without even clicking on anything on the website.
The malicious malvertising campaign stealthily identified and attacked vulnerable browsers, targeting all users not running script blockers with the Pirate Bay ads, according to Malwarebytes.
Security Specialist at ESET, Mark James said: "Most users associate being infected by going to a dodgy website and downloading a dodgy file, or browsing a website and choosing to download a file that is bad.
"However, when presented with a scenario that’s capable of infecting them without any visible interaction on their behalf, the end user is often baffled by ‘how it happened’.”
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