Game of Thrones has been suffering at the hands of hackers of late. The iconic fantasy drama series, which is currently making its way through its seventh season, has been the targeted by hackers, who have obtained 1.5 terabytes of data from HBO. In their second gamble, the hackers have leaked the script for the upcoming fifth episode with the watermark “HBO is failing” same as from the leaks before.
Earlier last week, the same group of hackers had leaked the scripts for the fourth episode of Game of Thrones season 7 “The Spoils of War” following a data breach where they extracted 1.5 TB from HBO. Back then they had threatened to release more data from the upcoming episodes which they have now proved that they weren’t joking about.
A still from Game of Thrones season 7 episode 4 “The Spoils of War”.
Aside from the script for episode 5, the hackers have also leaked the scripts of the last four episodes, sensitive information from HBO such as the cast’s phone numbers and email addresses, along with a demand for ransom. In a video letter playing to the soundtrack of Game of Thrones, the hackers demanded their “6-month salary in bitcoin.” While the original ransom amount was redacted from the letter, the hackers claim they earn between USD 12 million and 15 million in a year, placing their ransom demands around USD 9-10 million.
“Our demand is clear and Non-Negotiable: We want XXXX dollars to stop leaking your Data,” the hacker “Mr. Smith” states in the letter. “HBO spends 12 million for Market Research and 5 million for GOT7 advertisements. So consider us another budget for your advertisements!”
The hackers have presented HBO CEO Richard Plepler with an ultimatum to deliver the ransom within a span of three days. If their demands are not met, they claim to leak the entire series and more sensitive files from HBO.
Given how the hackers will not shy away from releasing more data, whether or not HBO will crumble to their demands remains to be seen.
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