HBO hit by cyber attack

Game of Thrones

HBO has confirmed that it has been the victim of a cyber attack, with hackers stealing proprietary information “including some of our programming”.

In an email sent to staff, HBO chairman and CEO Richard Plepler said that the ‘cyber incident’ had been “disruptive, unsettling, and disturbing” but did not go into details of what content had been accessed.

Entertainment Weekly, which was first to report on the hack, claimed that storyline information about next week’s episode of Game of Thrones, as well as forthcoming episodes of Ballers and Room 104 had been taken in a raid of 1.5 terabytes of data from the company.

“HBO recently experienced a cyber incident, which resulted in the compromise of proprietary information,” said HBO in a statement.

“We immediately began investigating the incident and are working with law enforcement and outside cybersecurity firms. Data protection is a top priority at HBO, and we take seriously our responsibility to protect the data we hold.”

Plepler said in his email to staff that HBO’s senior leadership and tech teams were “working round the clock to protect our collective interests” and said that its efforts had been “herculean”.

“It is a textbook example of quintessential HBO teamwork. The problem before us is unfortunately all too familiar in the world we now find ourselves a part of,” said Plepler.

HBO is the latest entertainment firm to prove vulnerable to hackers. Sony Pictures was famously hacked in 2014 and confidential emails were leaked after a group calling itself Guardians of Peace called for the company to pull its film The Interview – a comedy about a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.