The latest HBO hacking scandal is shaping up to be much, much worse than a few leaked Game of Thrones episodes.
Now the FBI is getting involved, according to the latest update from the Hollywood Reporter. The cyberattack that occurred earlier this week compromised around 1.5 terabytes of data, which, it turns out, is seven times the amount of data that was leaked during the 2014 Sony hack (around 200 gigabytes of data).
What makes this hack even more frightening is that, according to multiple sources, there has been no ransom declared. That means the hackers' motivation may have less to do with money and more to do with a political agenda, harnessing the power to release potentially compromising data (including internal memos and email correspondence) for HBO and its investors.
As of now, the only data that's been released by the hacker group—going by the Game of Thrones-referencing alias "little.finger66"—is the script of an upcoming episode of the aforementioned television show, along with full episodes of Ballers and Room 104. But that hardly amounts to the 1.5 terabytes that could theoretically be unleashed.
"If not for video and sound, a corporation the size of HBO might fit [entirely] in a terabyte, including all the email and spreadsheets ever written or stored," Farsight Security CEO Paul Vixie told the Hollywood Reporter. Video and sound files, meanwhile, take up much more space on their own, It's still unclear whether the hackers took mostly video content (episodes of Game of Thrones and other popular HBO series) or printed content (documents, emails, etc.); FBI officials working with HBO have declined to elaborate. But their possession of a script hints that they have access to text-based files, which could be far more damaging to HBO's internal operations than a few episode leaks. (Game of Thrones already has a huge pirating problem.)
Another widely-reported hacking incident occurred earlier this summer, when a collective known as TheDarkOverlord released all 10 episodes of the new Orange Is the New Black season before its official June release on Netflix. But in that case, it was only the television episodes, not internal documents, that were stolen, and there was a ransom involved. The HBO hack much more closely resembles the Sony security breach, which led to Sony co-chairman Amy Pascal stepping down from her position and may have even affected the 2016 election.
For the moment, all HBO can do is continue their investigation, and hope that little.finger66 doesn't plan on releasing information far more damning than the upcoming deaths in Westeros.
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