'Game of Thrones' Leaks Update: Hacker Identified and Charged
Recently, HBO got into trouble when previously unaired episodes of some of its most popular TV shows were leaked online. After months of investigation, the Department of Justice has finally identified the man behind the massive hacking incident.
The hacker was identified as Behzad Mesri, a former pirate for the Iranian military. According to reports, Mesri hacked the HBO's system and demanded $6 million from the company to earn more bitcoins. The U.S. Justice Department indicted Mesri on Tuesday and charged him with one count of wire fraud, one count of computer hacking, three counts of threatening to impair the confidentiality of information, one count of aggravated identity theft, and one count of interstate transmission of an extortionate communication.
U.S. prosecutors believe that Mesri is still in the Iran, but they said the charges filed against him should send a clear message to those who have plans of attacking the U.S. or anyone from the U.S.
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"He will forever be looking over his shoulder and if he isn't, he should be," said U.S. Attorney Joon Kim in a press conference held on Tuesday in New York City.
In the grand jury indictment released last Tuesday, it was revealed that Mesri once worked as a hacker for the Iranian government, where his job was to attack nuclear software systems and Israeli infrastructure. Unlike the attacks he used to make back then, however, his recent attack against HBO was made for a hefty pay coming in the form of untraceable bitcoin.
It can be recalled that after stealing the scripts for "Game of Thrones," Mesri threatened HBO that he would leak the unaired episodes of the show and some of its other shows. When the network did not give in to his threats, he started leaking the shows on July 30.
