HBO’s security has been compromised again, just a day after next week’s unaired episode of Game of Thrones appeared on file-sharing sites and Reddit.
This time, a hacking group called OurMine targeted HBO’s Twitter page and the Game of Thrones Facebook page not to ask for millions of dollars of ransom money, but to kindly let the TV network know their security was weak.
A tweet saying: “Hi, OurMine are here, we are just testing your security. HBO team please contact us to upgrade the security,” appeared on the site shortly before 8 p.m. on Wednesday.
BREAKING: Yet another hack problem for HBO tonight…this time to it's social media accounts https://t.co/oCRuBsqx1e pic.twitter.com/AM1g7dHL0E
— Andrew Wallenstein (@awallenstein) August 17, 2017
A similar message was posted by the Game of Thrones Facebook page with a follow-up status saying: “Let’s make #HBOhacked trending.” All relevant posts have since been deleted.
This cyber-security breach is just the latest in a string of hacks and lapses for the Time Warner unit. On Wednesday, HBO Nordic in Spain accidentally aired next Sunday’s episode of Game of Thrones, leading it to be copied and shared across the Internet. “The error appears to have originated with a third-party vendor and the episode was removed as soon as it was recognized. This is not connected to the recent cyber incident at HBO in the U.S.,” a spokesperson told The Verge.
Episode 4 of Game of Thrones’ Season 7 was also leaked two weeks ago through a distribution partner in India, according to The Verge, and hackers last month stole 1.5 terabytes of data from the company’s online files. They later demanded $6 million ransom for the draft scripts of five episodes.