As we reported on Aug. 9, HBO has been plagued by hacking threats of information and data leaks.
By now, you probably already know that HBO was the victim of a serious cyber attack, which stole scripts, unreleased TV episodes and employee information. Now it was revealed that the company tried to pay $ 250,000 in Bitcoins to the perpetrators to avoid further damage, but hackers had already said they wanted about $ 9 Million.
The message went to major entertainment sites such as Variety and the Hollywood Reporter, which released the content of the e-mail. "As a token of goodwill, we are willing to make a $ 250,000 payment as a reward for finding bugs as soon as we establish the necessary account and get the Bitcoins," the text said.
Variety, which says it confirmed the authenticity of the e-mail sent late in July, was a time-consuming tactic that apparently did not work out. Since then, a script for Game of Thrones and also the Ballers Series has leaked before the show and even personal information from actors, including address and phone, has been published. An entire episode came to be broadcast on the internet, but is believed to have fallen on the network by other means.
It is not known if the company really intended to go ahead with the payment, because this is a very unusual situation. Companies rarely deal with cybercriminals fearing a precedent; Just responding to threats is already an unusual situation.
At this point, with so much leaked information, it's hard to imagine that HBO is willing to pay anything, which leads us to wonder what the next steps for hackers will be. If they release everything they have, they lose any chance of receiving some amount as a ransom, but it could be the "nuclear" solution if negotiations do not go forward.
The Hollywood Reporter says it has received an e-mail from cybercriminals explaining the situation, and it seems they believe they can still get some value from the attack.
"It's just for the money. We have weeks of negotiations with HBO representatives, but they broke the promises and want to play with us. "
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