New York: Mr. Smith, the name being used by the hackers of HBO, who recently released a cache of the stolen files, have now demanded millions in ransom to prevent more such releases.
The data stolen by these hackers includes 5 episodes of the latest Game of Thrones season and a month’s worth of email from the account of Leslie Cohen, HBO’s vice president for film programming. Apart from that, there were internal documents, such as a report of legal claims against the network and employment offer letters to the top executives.
HBO has been a part of the investigation and is working with police and cyber security experts. The network has stated that it still doesn’t believe that its email system as a whole has been compromised.
A video sent by the hackers to the CEO of HBO, Richard Pleplar, said that if the network didn’t pay up, it could lead to further leaks of the upcoming episodes. –AP
