Israeli hacker arrested for leaking House of the Dragon finale

Games of Thrones long held the title of the most pirated show in the world, and was afflicted with multiple leaks throughout its run. That legacy was seemingly passed on to its successor show House of the Dragon. Remember when the finale of season 1 hit the internet two days before it aired? Well, the king’s justice has finally arrived for the person who leaked it.

According to The Jerusalem Post, a resident of the city of Givatayim was arrested on Monday for leaking the season 1 finale of House of the Dragon. Following a complaint from HBO that the company had reason to suspect that someone had hacked into a satellite TV company’s servers and stolen the episode, the Cyber Unit of the Central District of Israel Police opened an undercover investigation to find out who was responsible. This was back in October, so the investigation has been ongoing for quite some time.

“We are aware that the tenth episode of House of the Dragon has been posted on illegal torrent sites. It appears to have originated from a distribution partner in the EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) region,” HBO told Variety when the leak first happened. “HBO is aggressively monitoring and pulling these copies from the internet. We’re disappointed that this unlawful action has disrupted the viewing experience for loyal fans of the show, who will get to see a pristine version of the episode when it premieres Sunday on HBO and HBO Max, where it will stream exclusively in 4K.”

The person who leaked the House of the Dragon finale has been arrested

According to the report, the detectives used “advanced technological measures and collected and analyzed findings on social media” in order to figure out who had leaked the House of the Dragon finale. They analyzed the file that was uploaded to pirate servers as well as the anonymous user who uploaded it. The word “bird” was included in the user’s name; as it turns out, that’s the name of the suspect’s cat.

The suspect was arrested on Monday, and digital storage devices and computers were confiscated from their home. They have been released for now but are under “restrictive conditions” while the investigation continues.

So let it be known: if you’re going to steal from the powers that be in King’s Landing, maybe think twice. Or at least keep your pet out of it.

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