Hackers demand millions in ransom for stolen HBO data

Hackers using the name "Mr. Smith" have posted a fresh cache of stolen HBO files online, demanding that HBO paya multimillion-dollar ransom to prevent the release of entire television series andother sensitive proprietary files.

HBO, which had previously acknowledged the theft of "proprietaryinformation," said it's continuing to investigate and is workingwith police and cybersecurity experts.

In a swaggering five-minute video from "Mr. Smith" to HBO CEORichard Plepler included in the dump, the hackers used white textscrolling on a black background to deliver an ultimatum.

Specifically, the hackers demanded "our 6-month salary inbitcoin," paid within three days, and claimed they earn $12 million to $15 million a yearfrom blackmailing organizations whose networks they have penetrated.They said they would only deal directly with "Richard" and onlysend one "letter" detailing how to pay.

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The data dump itself was just 3.4 gigabytes mostly technical datathat appears to provide a topography of HBO's network and to listnetwork-administrator passwords. It includes what appear to be draftscripts from fiveGame of Thronesepisodes, including oneupcoming episode, and a month's worth of email apparently from theaccount of Leslie Cohen, HBO's vice-president for film programming.

The network reiterated Monday that it doesn't believe that itsemailsystem as a whole has been compromised.

Personal info of GoT stars?

The video text was written in often flawed but fluent Englishpeppered with misspellings and pop culture references.

The hackers claimed it took them about sixmonths to breach HBO'snetwork. Their biggest threat appears to be dumping videos of futureshows online with their logo "HBO Is Falling" superimposed.

Many of the more than 50 internal documents in the dump werelabelled "confidential," including a spreadsheet of legal claimsagainst the network, job offer letters to several top executives,slides discussing future technology plans and a list of 37,977emails called "Richard's contact list," an apparent reference toPlepler.

One screenshot labelled "Highly Confidential" by the hackerslisted folders such as "Penguin Random House," "Licensing &Retail," "Legal," "International" and "Budgets." Anotherdocument appears to contain the confidential cast list for Game ofThrones,listing personal cellphone numbers and email addressesfor actors such as Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey and Emilia Clark.

This is the second data dump from the purported hacker. So far the HBO leaks have been limited, falling well short of the chaos inflicted on Sony in 2014. In that attack, hackers unearthed thousands of embarrassing emails and released personal information, including salaries and social security numbers of nearly 50,000 current and former Sony employees.

The video letter uploaded Monday claimed the hackers spend a halfmillion dollars a year to purchase "zero-day" exploits that letthem break into networks through holes not yet known to Microsoft andother software companies. It claims HBO is the hackers' 17th targetand that only three of their past targets refused to pay.