The standoff between HBO and the hacker who has plagued them for a few weeks reached a new level of tension on Sunday. The hacker, who is demanding money from the Time Warner cable company, leaked unaired episodes of several high-profile series.
The most notable among these was Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry David’s (Seinfeld) comedy series in which a semi-fictional version of himself encounters a seemingly endless barrage of annoying minutiae he can’t help but complain about, much to the chagrin of everyone around him. The series was due to return in October after a long hiatus, but the hacker appears to have had other plans in mind.
The Home Box Office, however, released a statement after the hacking dump indicating that it would not be persuaded to give in to such tactics. In the statement, the network announced that “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. Obviously, no company wants their proprietary information stolen and released on the internet. Transparency with our employees, partners, and the creative talent that works with us has been our focus throughout this incident and will remain our focus as we move forward. This incident has not deterred us from ensuring HBO continues to do what we do best.”
The hacker, who may or may not be a team of hackers working in unison, has been offered $250,000 to end the leaking. This did not appease the perpetrator, who has also released episodes of Insecure, Ballers, Barry, The Deuce, and several installments of the network’s biggest series, Game of Thrones.
