July 31, 2017

Game of Thrones Target of Latest Hack

Hackers obtain upcoming episodes and scripts for several HBO shows.

Helen Sloan/HBO

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Hackers have obtained several episodes of upcoming shows on HBO, and perhaps the script for an upcoming episode of Game of Thrones, according to a report from Entertainment Weekly. 

According to the report, published Monday morning, hackers claim to have downloaded 1.5 terabytes worth of data from HBO, which includes episodes of Ballers and Room 104. A script treatment for an upcoming Game of Thrones episode has also apparently been posted. 

“Hi to all mankind,” the hackers allegedly wrote in an email to reporters on Sunday. “The greatest leak of cyber space era is happening. What’s its name? Oh I fort to tell. Its (sic) HBO and Game of Thrones……!!!!!!” 

Entertaiment Weekly also obtained an internal email from HBO Chairman and CEO Richard Plepler that acknowledges the hack.

“As most of you have probably heard by now, there has been a cyber incident directed at the company which has resulted in some stolen proprietary information, including some of our programming,” Plepler wrote. “Any intrusion of this nature is obviously disruptive, unsettling, and disturbing for all of us.” 

An HBO spokesman declined to comment on the hack to CNN, but said that the company was working “with law enforcement and outside cybersecurity companies to investigate the hack.”

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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