Hackers threaten to leak HBO ‘Game of Thrones’ season finale

The hackers behind the recent breach at HBO are threatening to leak the upcoming season finale of “Game of Thrones.” 

The hackers recently communicated with the website Mashable offering a purported trove of new stolen data and threatening to leak episodes six and seven of the show, the final two in its seventh season. 

{mosads}“Be ready for GOT S& E6 &E7 as soon as possible,” the group said in email correspondence. 

Episode six, “Beyond the Wall,” premiered on Sunday night in the United States and did not appear to have been leaked ahead of time. The seventh episode — the season finale — is set to premier next Sunday evening. 

The hackers, who go by the name “Mr. Smith,” have been periodically releasing information stolen from the company, including not-yet-released episodes from hit shows like “Ballers” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” as well as internal emails from company executives.

While the hackers have also released purported “Game of Thrones” scripts, they have not yet leaked episodes of the show. However, in a separate incident connected to HBO’s distribution partner Star India, the fourth episode of the current season of “Game of Thrones” was leaked online in early August before it aired. Four individuals in India have been arrested in connection with the incident. 

In the communications with Mashable, the hackers also claimed to have obtained login credentials for HBO social media accounts, including those associated with the Twitter accounts for HBO, “Game of Thrones” and the show “Westworld.” The hackers said they “have access to many HBO platforms already.”

Entertainment Weekly first reported at the end of July that HBO had been hacked. The hackers claim to have stolen 1.5 terabytes of data.

The hackers have demanded millions in Bitcoin payments from HBO in exchange for the stolen data, though it remains unclear whether the company plans to pay the ransom. 

In what appeared to be a separate incident last week, a hacker group calling itself “OurMine” also took over HBO’s Twitter and Facebook accounts as well as those associated with some of its shows, including “Game of Thrones.” 

“Hi, OurMine are here, we are just testing your security, HBO team please contact us to upgrade the security,” the hackers wrote in a message to the company.