Following the illegal leaking of two episodes of Game of Thrones and script material from an unaired episode of the show, hackers have requested for a ransom of $7.5 million in bitcoin from HBO.
The hackers reportedly stole 1.5 terabytes of data from the company last week, comprising script summaries for the next five episodes of Game of Thrones as well as scripts of other HBO shows.
According to the ransom note sent to HBO, the hackers advised HBO to pay up or risk forcing them to share more delicate company data online.
“We often launch two major operations in a year and our annual income is about 12-15 million dollars. We are serious enough to do our business,” the note read.
“We don’t play with you so, you in return, don’t play with us. You only have 3 days to make a decision so decide wisely.”
The hackers gave the company three days to make a decision.
HBO now has to take the tough decision of whether to pay up, stop the hackers from leaking, or risk losing even more valuable content.