FBI joins investigation into HBO leak, which could be worse than originally thought (UPDATED)

HBO recently suffered a major hack, joining the ranks of companies like Sony Pictures and Yahoo that have the victims of coordinated cyber attacks over the past several years. Per The Hollywood Reporter, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has become involved in the case, which is not a good sign.

When Sony was hacked, the criminals took and released around 200 gigabytes of data. That hack led to the exposure of a lot of sensitive data and resulting in the ouster of co-chair Amy Pascal. The HBO attack could be much worse, with the hackers claiming to have stolen 1.5 terabytes of data, or roughly 1500 gigabytes. Cybersecurity expert and former Secret Service agent Erik Rasmussen puts that in context:

"At 1.5 terabytes, it could be a whole block of TV, or worse, it could be emails, financial documents, employee or customer information. The fact that you have law enforcement and a [cybersecurity] firm involved most likely means this will be a very large incident for HBO."

That cyber-security firm, Mandiant, previously assisted Sony with their hacking woes in 2014.

As for what the hackers have stolen, the extent still isn’t clear. Episodes of Ballers and Room 104 have turned up online, as have two episodes of Barry, a hit-man comedy comedy starring Bill Hader not due to air until 2018. As for Game of Thrones-related information goes, the hackers have released an early draft of a script for “The Spoils of War,” this Sunday’s new episode, but nothing else. However, they’ve promised that more is on the way, and with a potential 1.5 terabytes of data at their disposal, they could be in possession of quite a lot.

Another interesting twist: the hackers announced their theft via an insufferable message to select media outlets, one full of grammatical errors and black holes where punctuation is supposed to be. The name they used: little.finger66.

"Hi to all mankind. The greatest leak of cyber space era is happening. What’s its name? Oh I forget to tell. Its HBO and Game of Thrones……!!!!!! You are lucky to be the first pioneers to witness and download the leak. Enjoy it & spread the words. Whoever spreads well, we will have an interview with him. HBO is falling."

Littlefinger always ruins everything.

Next: Our Very Serious Game of Thrones Recap—Episode 703—”The Queen’s Lipstick”

UPDATE: According to automated replay sent to Variety, the hackers have threatened to release more of the information they stole “gradually,” starting with another dump on “Sunday 12 GMT.” In other words, they plan to release more data on the same day as the new Game of Thrones. Does that mean they have a full episode to release? We’ll see shortly.

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