HBO offered hackers a ransom of $ 250 thousand for their data
By Prempal Singh
HBO offered hackers who stole files belonging to him, a ransom of $250 thousand., A message with information about it was sent out by a group of cyber criminals in several media, wrote on August 10 The Hollywood Reporter.
According to the text of the letter sent out, a similar proposal was made by HBO Executive Director Richard Plepler.
“As a demonstration of good faith on our part, we are ready to commit ourselves to paying you $ 250,000 as soon as we can create the necessary account and buy bitcoin ,” such a quote appears in the text of the e-mail.
Representatives of HBO refused to comment on the publication of this information in the media. However, Variety says that he managed to confirm the authenticity of the letter.
Variety suggests that such a move by the TV channel could be a tactical ploy. This letter was sent in late July 2017, according to journalists, at that time HBO still did not fully appreciate the damage from the hacking.
In the opinion of the editorial board, it is difficult to say whether the channel was really ready to pay a ransom, but in any case, the publication finds interesting the very fact that such a proposal could have been made.
We will remind, earlier the hacker group, hiding under a name «Mr. Smith “claimed that it managed to steal 1.5 terabytes of HBO data. On August 8, 2017, the media reported that the attackers demanded a ransom from the channel, amounting to several million dollars.