The thieves of the new series "Game of thrones" demanded a ransom from the HBO channel

It was only a week after the news of the hacking of the network of the television channel NVO by a group of unknown intruders. Then it became known that cybercriminals , having climbed into the internal network of the TV channel, stole the scenarios of future episodes of Game of Thrones, entire episodes and scenarios of other TV series (including those that have not yet been released on the screens).



The total amount of stolen files was one and a half terabytes. This video, documentation, photos and more. The hackers not only reported on their success, but also supported the statement with a series of files uploaded to torrents and file sharing. Most of them were tagged with HBO is Falling watermark. Among other documents in the “plum” list were financial documents of the company, emails, labor agreements, plans for the future.



Why was it all doing? It is already clear - in order to receive money, that is, it is a question of banal extortion. The scheme is simple - attackers are paid, and they stop (well, or lie, that stop) to upload new files from the stolen array. The amount of "redemption" in question is rather big. As far as can be judged, cybercriminals want to get at least several million US dollars.

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“HBO spends 12 million on marketing research and 5 million on other types of research. Therefore, consider us as an additional item of advertising expenses! ”, - it is said in the letter sent by the attackers to the management of the television company.



There were more letters. In most of them, companies tried to explain how bad she would be if she did not pay. “The leak will be your worst nightmare. Therefore, make a wise decision! ”, - says another message.



Everything that happened can really be called a nightmare for the TV channel. After all, viewers are watching new episodes of "Game of Thrones" and other TV shows in the hope of finding out something new. And if there is nothing new, since the script and some series have leaked to the Internet, then the series will be watched by a much smaller number of people than if there was no leakage. Accordingly, the channel's profit will be reduced.



Despite the extortion, the attackers claim that they are not cybercriminals at all, but “white” hackers. Usually this term refers to information security specialists who are examining vulnerabilities in the protection of networks of various companies. Why cyber warders decided they were “good” hackers is a mystery.



The hackers have not yet received any money, and the management of the TV channel is conducting a large-scale investigation of what happened, trying to understand how the company's network was hacked and how this can be avoided in the future.