“The persons behind the hack have already released a dump of a little more than 3 GB worth of data, the AP says — mostly internal documents about the company’s network, a month’s worth of email from one executive’s account, and a few draft scripts from Game of Thrones.
That’s a mere fraction — 2%, give or take — of the roughly 1.5 TB of data the attackers claim to have stolen. But included in that initial dump was a video addressed to HBO CEO Richard Plepler.
That video, which the AP describes as “swaggering,” gives Plepler an ultimatum: Pay up in three days, or else we release all of it.
The hackers are demanding the equivalent of 6 months of their salary for ransom. And what is the annual salary of a hacker criminal, you may wonder? They claim their annual take from extortion is $12-$15 million per year — so they basically want at least $6 million worth of bitcoin.”
Author: Kate Cox