After a six-year absence from television, Larry David is finally set to bring back Curb Your Enthusiasm for a ninth season this fall. If you're the sort of person who dabbles in illicit property online, however, the wait is over as hackers have leaked new episodes of the long-awaited show.
HBO has been held hostage by a hacker or group of hackers known as Mr. Smith for the last few weeks. Among the things they've leaked are Game of Thrones episode descriptions and personal contact info for the show's stars, as well as episodes of Insecure and Ballers.
While previous leaks arrived close to their air time, however, the Curb episodes landed over a month before the show was scheduled to return.
In a statement released Sunday night (August 13), HBO said they are not willing to cooperate with the hackers:
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.
This contradicts a leaked memo from the hacker last week, where HBO supposedly offered a $250,000 "bounty payment." The hacker has demanded $6 to $8 million USD, and claims to have stolen approximately 1.5 terabytes of data from the network.
It's times like these that we really wish Larry David had a social media presence so that we could get his thoughts on the whole thing.
HBO has been held hostage by a hacker or group of hackers known as Mr. Smith for the last few weeks. Among the things they've leaked are Game of Thrones episode descriptions and personal contact info for the show's stars, as well as episodes of Insecure and Ballers.
While previous leaks arrived close to their air time, however, the Curb episodes landed over a month before the show was scheduled to return.
In a statement released Sunday night (August 13), HBO said they are not willing to cooperate with the hackers:
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.
This contradicts a leaked memo from the hacker last week, where HBO supposedly offered a $250,000 "bounty payment." The hacker has demanded $6 to $8 million USD, and claims to have stolen approximately 1.5 terabytes of data from the network.
It's times like these that we really wish Larry David had a social media presence so that we could get his thoughts on the whole thing.