“We successfully breached into your huge network. … HBO was one of our difficult targets to deal with but we succeeded (it took about 6 months)”

Hackers who struck HBO a week ago have posted new information online and are demanding that the network pays a ransom in millions of dollars to prevent additional releases.

The New York Times reports that the hackers who go by the name “Mr Smith” shared a fresh cache of stolen files including “five Game of Thrones scripts, including one from an unreleased episode, emails from Leslie Cohen, HBO’s vice president for film programming, and other internal communications at HBO.

On 31 July, HBO acknowledged that its system had experienced a breach which “resulted in the compromise of proprietary information”. Few days after, the yet-to-be-released episode 4 of the current season of Game of Thrones became available online before its official release date.

This time, the hackers forwarded a video message to HBO Chief Executive, Richard Plepler, in which they threatened more releases if the ransom – which has been totalled as about $6 million – is not paid.

Tolu

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