The unknown hacker or hacker group that recently hacked pay television service HBO, obtained a large collection of emails of the company's CEO. Entertainment website The Hollywood Reporter writes it received access to the material yesterday.
The mails were reportedly sent and received within one month and contain details about HBO's hit series Game of Thrones. The Hollywood Reporter hasn't stated anything about the content of the mails and neither reveals from which HBO employee the mails are.
According to Wired also a script of the next episode of Game of Thrones has been published online, which also happened earlier this year.
HBO has stated to be investigating the hack and states that it appears that not its full email system has been hacked. Possibly the password of an individual employee has been stolen.
The hackers reportedly obtained 1.5 Terabyte of data, most of it is likely video material. Several episodes of new series leaked prematurely to several file sharing services.
The Associated Press reports that the hackers have sent a video to the CEO of HBO in which they demand ransom. The hackers want to receive half of their annual salary in Bitcoin within 3 days. According to the video the hackers earn $12-15 million a year by extorting companies.
Several companies within the entertainment industry have been recently hit by hacks where confidential material was stolen. Earlier episodes of the Netflix series 'Orange is the New Black' leaked after the streaming service denied to pay a ransom to hackers.
