HBO Twitter Accounts hacked after Cyber Attack!

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In July this year, cyber crooks launched a cyber attack on the database of Hollywood Box Office(HBO) to steal 1.5 terabytes of proprietary data which includes few episodes of ā€œGame of Thorns- Season 7ā€.

After getting hold of the data, the hacker named ā€œMr. Smithā€ demanded a ransom of several million dollars worth in bitcoins in exchange of the leaked data. Furthermore, the hacker issued a warning to the HBO officials that if they fail to pay the ransom within a couple of days, the leaked data will be dumped onto the dark web.

When FBI was pressed into the probe, it discovered that the data was leaked as soon as the hackers got hold of the email credentials of Leslie Cohen, HBOā€™s Vice President for film programming.

Since, HBO failed to react to the hackerā€™s call, few episodes of ā€œGame of Thornesā€ containing the water mark ā€œ HBO is Fallingā€ were leaked to the web. After two days time details such as emails, financial balance sheets, employment agreements and marketing strategies also emerged on the web.

On Wednesday night this week, a hacking group named ā€œ OurMineā€ gained access to the Twitter accounts of HBO. It left a message to the HBO that ā€œ Ourmine is here, we are just testing your security- Please contact us to upgrade the security-ourmine.orgā†’ contactā€

A second tweet which surfaced this early morning on HBOā€™s official twitter page reads ā€œLetā€™s make #HBOHacked Trending!ā€
The other twitter accounts linked to the HBOā€™s official twitter page were also hacked and that includes the accounts of shows such as ā€œLast week Tonightā€, ā€œVeepā€, ā€œThe Leftoversā€, ā€œLookingā€, ā€œSilicon Valleyā€, ā€œTrue Bloodā€, and ā€œVinylā€

When contacted, HBO said that the investigation on its twitter hack is still going on and so asked the press to wait for the latest to publish.

And in another incident which stands as a faux pas, one of the upcoming episode of ā€œGame of Thornsā€ was accidentally aired on HBO Nordic and HBO Espana Platforms for 1 full hour. The channel authorities later learned about the blunder and apologized for the technical blooper created by some of its staff members.

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Naveen Goud is a writer at Cybersecurity Insiders covering topics such as Mergers & Acquisitions, Startups, Cyber Attacks, Cloud Security and Mobile Security

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