HBO hackers demand ransom after leaking some internal data online, including personal numbers & addresses of ‘Game of Thrones’ stars

Sky Atlantic

HBO’s headache over its recent security breach is far from over. The hackers who got into HBO’s system have supposedly released 3.4GB of the reported 1.5TB of data it obtained from the company. While it was discovered that upcoming Game of Thrones episodes don’t look like they’ve been taken, things like scripts for upcoming GoT episodes, technical documents with HBO’s internal network and administrator passwords, and unreleased episodes of Room 104 and Ballers have landed into the hands of the hackers.

Now these baddies have started to release some of these information, including draft scripts for five GoT episodes and the technical docs, which also includes one that contains a list of personal numbers, home addresses, and email addresses of all season 7 Game of Thrones actors (like Emilia Clarke, Lena Headey, and Peter Dinklage). Even HBO’s Vice President for Film Programming Leslie Cohen had a month’s worth of her emails released.

The hackers sent a five-minute video letter from one “Mr Smith” and are demanding for “six-month salary in bitcoin.” And that HBO needs to pay within three days or have their shows and confidential data leaked online. HBO says they are still working with law enforcement and cybersecurity experts to get to the bottom of this. But they believe that their entire email system hasn’t been compromised.

The hackers claim they earn US$12m to $15m a year from blackmailing organisations they’ve hacked. They say they’ll only work with HBO Chief Executive Richard Plepler and only send one “letter” to detail how HBO will pay them.

Source: The Guardian