Many have now heard about the hack that occurred on HBO, which resulted in the leak of a Game Of Thrones episode prior to its release, and allegedly also resulted in the stealing of multiple contracts and other intellectual property. The hackers demanded something around 10million USD worth of BTC as a ransom payment. An email suggesting that HBO was willing to pay 250,000USD worth of BTC as a 'bug bounty' to the ransomers. That being said, they claim that this was just a delay tactic, as mentioned here:
Do you buy that it was just a delay tactic? I think that comes down to whether or not they had a team good enough to save them/reverse the hack, regain control. Being a huge company, I can't imagine they wouldn't have been willing to pay consulting companies for immediate help regarding this. So, I imagine they did have/get a team that was able to regain control. That being said, is it possible that they did end up paying the BTC? Yes, it is possible; however, I'm not sure if it happened. If it did, although possibly unavoidable, I think that that may set a precedent/environment that will attract additional hackers demanding BTC, as they can more easily escape tracing (through use of Tor, etc. in concert with BTC) .
4 people have been arrested in India concerning the hacks.
Thanks for the update! :)
It's getting bad. And it going to get much worse. Everything is now being connected to the web. Cars, refrigerators, heck my AC in my house is wireless. And nothing is unbreakable. With a dedicated team, everything can be broken into if its on the web.
Well said!
Well, the episode before last was leaked before it was scheduled to show, so I would say they didn't pay, unless the hackers had the rest of the episodes too and didn't release them because HBO paid and they just put the first one online to show they mean business, or something.
Good observation. and Yeah, that's a good question!
Nice post
Thanks! :)