HBO Hacked News: Details of the Ransom Note and Demands of Hackers
After treating "Game of Thrones" fans to a leak of the scripts of the highly anticipated scenes in the series, hackers who are threatening HBO are now demanding for millions in exchange for confidential information and copies of an entire series. Recent reports indicate the exact details of the hackers' demands and HBO's current plans on dealing with the security breach incident.
According to reports, the full list of the leakage of data taken from HBO includes script drafts of future episodes of "Game of Thrones," data that details the internal network, administrator passwords, and the personal information of the "Game of Thrones" cast, including Lena Headey, Peter Dinklage, and Emilia Clarke. There is also a compilation of all the emails that the vice president for film programming sent in the past month.
According to reports, the hackers demand HBO to give them their six-month salary in bitcoin, detailing that they usually earn $12 million to $15 million in blackmailing executives and companies. They insisted to only deal with HBO's chief executive officer Richard Plepler, and that the network will only be able to send one letter detailing how to pay.
"The review to date has not given us a reason to believe that our email system as a whole has been compromised," HBO spokesperson Jeff Cusson told Wired. "We continue to work around the clock with outside cybersecurity firms and law enforcement to resolve the incident."
Back in 2014, Sony made the same mistake of assuming that the hackers do not have their confidential information. It resulted to one of the most impactful incidents that the tech giant has had to survive through. The ransom notes from HBO's hackers emphasize that they are not criminals; they simply want to be a part of the network's huge income without endangering their reputation or situation.
