HBO hackers leak Game of Thrones Stars data; demand multimillion dollar ransom

[grimm]

The HBO hackers are demanding millions of dollars in ransom and threatening to leak more data if their demands are not met. 

HBO hackers are back; this time the group is claiming to have leaked personal details of Game of Thrones celebrities including their emails, phone numbers, and scripts in the latest batch of data stolen from the Network’s server last week.

In a video for HBO’s CEO Richard Plepler, a group of hackers calling itself “Mr.Smith” said that they had leaked another trove of stolen HBO data (3.4GB of files) which includes scripts for the first four episodes of Game of Thrones season, script of the unreleased fifth episode, internal documents such as financial statements, marketing-strategy in PDF files, agreements, administrator passwords, and emails. Many of the documents were labeled as “confidential” while all of the data is watermarked with “HBO is Falling,” the group’s signature.

The Guardian noted that one of the leaked document showed personal details of Game of Thrones celebs including email addresses and phone numbers of stars like Emilia Clark, Lena Headey, and Peter Dinklage.

In the 5 minute video, the group also threatened to leak more TV shows and personal emails if a “multimillion-dollar” ransom is not paid within three days from the date of sending the video message.

Our demand is clear and Non-Negotiable: We want XXXX dollars to stop leaking your Data – HBO spends 12 million for Market Research and 5 million for GOT7 advertisements. So consider us another budget for your advertisements!”
The hackers also claimed that it took them around six months to steal data from HBO and $500,000 to get their hands on a security flaw which allows them to steal data from large enterprises. The “zero day flaw” is still unknown to Microsoft.

Remember, a few days ago, a Reddit users leaked Game of Thrones’ Episode 4 from Season 7 while it was to be aired the very next day.

Previously, HBO hackers claimed to steal 1.5TB of data from the company which was then uploaded on the group’s official website. Initially, HBO said that it does not believe the hackers stole its emails as a whole, but a look at the latest leak shows otherwise. 

One of the leaked files on the website contained hundreds of login credentials including those belonging to Viviane Eisenberg, the Executive Vice President Legal Affairs for Home Box Office, Inc. The credentials belong to her social media platforms, PayPal, credit card and bank account, airline logins, office emails, healthcare accounts and hundreds of other platforms.

The identity of hackers is completely unknown, however, in the past, The Dark Overlord hacker or hackers conducted similar hack attacks when they hacked Hollywood-based Larson Studios and stole unreleased season 5 of Netflix’ Orange Is the New Black and leaked it online after failed negotiations with Netflix and the Studio. The same group leaked the first eight episodes of Steve Harvey’s Funderdome TV show, before its premiere.

In the Netflix case, it was later discovered that hackers used a zero day security flaw in the studio’s computer system which ran on outdated Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system. Although, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is now investigating the HBO hack it is too early to conclude who is behind this massive hack.