Game of Thrones hackers threaten to release season finale

CALIFORNIA, U.S. - Hackers might have given HBO and the Game of Thrones creators some sleepless nights this month - but it is bound to get worse as the finale draws closer.

The unusually reduced number of episodes this season - the seventh one for HBO’s ragingly popular drama series - the Game of Thrones has only seven, as opposed to the usual ten episodes this year. 

The latest season also came after a good 2-4 month delay than usual and another long delay is expected after the season ends next week, only to return after more than a year for the all crucial eight season. 

However, the twists and turns of the highly unpredictable plots of the show got somewhat lost in the many leaks the show has suffered. 

First, the fourth episode of the show was leaked, sending the world in a tizzy… and as fans asked for more, it would seem their wish came true as in the same week, hackers broke into HBO servers and stole 1.5 terabytes of information. 

The leak, however, emerged from Star India’s (the official distributor of the show in India) vendor Prime Focus Technologies, leading to four arrests last week.

Hackers released countless internal documents from the U.S.-based television network, including a month's worth of a top executive's emails, financial balance sheets, employment agreements and marketing-strategy PDFs.

All the leaks came along with a note from the hackers, demanding a huge ransom of $6 million, with the claim, “consider us another budget for your advertisements.”

The hackers behind the HBO data breach posted a publicly accessible link online which included a script summary of an upcoming Game of Thrones.

Then, in a blunder, one of the biggest witnessed in the world of television till date, HBO Spain aired the sixth episode five days before its official airing.

While the previous leak was blamed on hackers initially, this time HBO has no one but themselves to blame. 

Soon after the episode was aired, screenshots and parts of the episode began doing the rounds on Reddit, with the episode subsequently being circulated massively by ardent fans.

Now, after the episode 6 airs on Sunday, there is just one episode left - the grand finale, which will set the tone for what is being called in fan circles - the long night. 

But hackers have a plan. 

Hackers have threatened to leak episode 7 too, in a message that terrified HBO but made fans fall to the ground, thanking their stars. 

In a chilling email worthy of the Night King, the hacker group said, “Be ready for GOT S& E6 &E7 as soon as possible.”

The group, which identifies itself as the Mr Smith Group, also claimed to have access to several HBO social media accounts, including the Twitter and Instagram pages for shows like Westworld and Game of Thrones.

They wrote an email to Mashable, in which they said they wanted the attention of HBO executives, who recently offered them $250,000 to buy time, even as episodes made their way online without the hackers’ help.

Hackers are reportedly demanding for approximately $6.5 million in Bitcoin.

HBO has repeated its previous statement, in which it said, “We are not in communication with the hacker and we’re not going to comment every time a new piece of information is released. It has been widely reported that there was a cyber incident at HBO. The hacker may continue to drop bits and pieces of stolen information in an attempt to generate media attention. That’s a game we’re not going to participate in.”