HBO Offered Hackers This Whopping Bug Bounty Payment!

HBO

The media channel HBO was recently hacked with the over 1.5 TB data loss.

HBO was recently hacked in July leading to a massive loss of data from their servers. The channel admitted that they were working on securing the leak and retrieving the data from the hackers.

The media giant has several shows at stake. It creates some original content as well. HBO’s most popular TV show Game Of Thrones is a major target of the hackers.

‘Game of Thrones’ is one of the shows to be attacked. It is a popular show and quite profitable to the channel. Hackers have several scripts of the show and almost 1 month’s emails between the main heads of the channel. Private data and job offer letters are also in this leak.

‘Game of Thrones’ episode 4 was leaked online before its release on the Indian streaming app Hotstar. The episode was given earlier to Star India (owner of the Hotstar) but it was leaked. The news was confirmed by the channel who admitted that the episode leak was a security breach.

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HBO channel is now being threatened for almost several million dollars as ransom for getting back their data. The hackers leaked an email conversation between the media channel. HBO is seen agreeing to pay $250,000 as part of a negotiation deal over data hacked from the HBO’s servers.

John Beyler, the HBO executive emailed thanking the hackers for “making them aware” of their weak security. The email also asked for an extension of 1 week before leaking any more data.

The hackers have already leaked data twice over the past two weeks and have threatened to do so. They have demanded a multi dollar ransom for the data and even then there is no guarantee that the data is safe. The hackers have asked for a bit coin payment.

HBO called the $250,000 money offer as a ‘bug bounty’ for IT professionals instead of a ransom. This ‘bug bounty’ move has raised questions about what companies can pay in cases of data hacks. Other channel heads think that this could be a motivation for other hackers to make a move on data leaks and earning quick money.

HBO has not responded to this revelation. This hack is not as bad as the one back in 2014 with Sony losing far more data.

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