'Game of Thrones' Twitter Account Hacked Following Episode Leaks
HBO has once again been attacked by hackers. After episode leaks, the cable network's most popular series yet, "Game of Thrones," has been hacked but, this time around, it was the official social media accounts that fell victims of the attack.
On Wednesday, a hacker group called OurMine briefly took over the official "Game of Thrones" Twitter account. The team posted a message, warning HBO to improve its online security.
"Hi, OurMine is here, we are just testing your security," the message read. "HBO team please contact us to upgrade the security."
The tweet was deleted immediately after. The Guardian reported that HBO is currently investigating the attack.
OurMine has been pretty notorious for hacking social media accounts of high-profile personalities such as Google's Sundar Pichai, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, and actor Channing Tatum. The group was also able to gain access to websites such as Tech Crunch and Buzzfeed.
Meanwhile, HBO has also fallen victim to another, more massive hacking. Earlier this month, a cybercriminal calling themselves Mr. Smith distributed troves of files that contain shooting diaries, actors' contact information and addresses, e-mails, and unaired "Game of Thrones" episodes. The hackers are demanding around $6.5 million in Bitcoin in exchange for the 1.5 terabytes of data from the network.
So far, HBO has not paid the hackers and, therefore, the leaks continue. "Game of Thrones" does not seem affected by the leaks because Season 7 is enjoying record high ratings.
This week, however, the next episode of its highest-rated series was leaked because of the television network's error. EW reports that the European division of the network accidentally posted "Game of Thrones" Season 7 Episode 6 on its own consumer platform for an hour. While it was immediately taken down, people were able to get their own copies and distribute them worldwide. The sixth episode is set to air on HBO on Monday, Aug. 21.
