HBO appears to have been the victim of a hacking attack that resulted in the leak of 1.5 terabytes of data.
The extent of the violation
The breach was confirmed by HBO itself, which stated that proprietary data was leaked, without specifying which data exactly.
According to Entertainment Weekly, the attackers have already leaked online unreleased episodes of Ballers, Room 104, and a script that appears to be for the next episode of HBO's hugely popular series Game of Thrones.
The hackers, who do not seem to be interested in money, but more in causing damage to the company, sent a link to the data via email to many journalists.
"Enjoy and spread the word. Whoever spreads the most will get to interview us. HBO is down," the message reads.
The hackers reportedly told Wired that they had infiltrated HBO’s network and collected “files, movies, scripts, and so on.” They also claim to have obtained a wealth of information about HBO staff and other internal data.
The scope of the breach has not yet been determined, but if what the attackers claim is true, this particular hack is more similar to the one at Sony (in 2014).
Now what?
HBO has called in security firms to assist in the investigation, while also notifying authorities about the incident. HBO President and CEO Richard Plepler has meanwhile notified HBO employees of the breach.
“Since the malicious attack on Sony Pictures, it has been evident that hackers highly value any high-value content such as movies and TV shows,” says Richard Stiennon, Chief Strategy Officer at Blancco Technology Group.
There are no further details at the moment, but you will surely see the results of the hack on your neighborhood torrent tracker soon.
