HBO was recently hit by a cyberattack. Reports suggest that 1.5TB of data has been stolen from the cable giant’s servers. We’ve already seen leaked scripts of unaired Game of Thrones episodes and it’s said that unaired episodes of some other shows have been leaked as well. And now one report suggests that HBO offered hackers $250,000 as a “bug bounty payment” to prevent these leaks.
The hackers behind have leaked a screenshot of an email which shows that a senior HBO vice president offered them $250,000 as a “bug bounty payment.” The email is dated July 27 and was obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. I guess HBO has no problem with ransom demands.
The email indicates that a negotiation was going on between the network and the hackers. HBO’s response is obviously worded carefully so that it doesn’t seem like they are paying them a ransom, it instead gives the impression that HBO is offering them a reward for discovering vulnerabilities in its system. But it could still be considered caving in.
“As a show of good faith on our side, we are willing to commit to making a bug bounty payment of $250,000 to you as soon as we can establish the necessary account and acquire bitcoin,” the email reads. It’s believed that the hackers are demanding millions in Bitcoin from HBO to stop leaking more content. We also do not know what other data they’ve obtained from HBO’s systems. Cable companies sure have to deal with interesting things these days.
Source Ubergizmo
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