Mike Wuerthele
Netflix has not responded to a hacker's ransom demand, and as a result, nearly all of season 5 of "Orange Is the New Black" has been released to illicit file sharing sites.
Over the weekend, hacker group "Thedarkoverlord" releases the premiere episode of season 5 of the show. NBC News reported on Monday that a "modest" ransom was demanded to prevent the release of the rest of the season.
"They continue to remain unresponsive," Thedarkoverlord claimed. "With this information in mind (and the fact that leaving people on cliffhangers isn't fun) we've decided to release Episodes 2-10 of 'Orange Is the New Black' Season 5 after many lengthy discussions at the office where alcohol was present."
Netflix so far has little to say about the release. In a very brief statement, the company says that a production company "had its security compromised" and "law enforcement authorities are involved."
A report from TorrentFreak notes that at the end of 2016, the group gained access to Larson Studios in Hollywood, the dialog recording studio that works on "Orange Is the New Black." Allegedly, the production studio agreed to pay the 50 Bitcoin ransom, but didn't end up making the payment.
Thedarkoverlord is not a new group seeking notoriety. The group has successfully hacked Atlanta-based medical groups who care for professional athletes, released data from Gorilla Glue, and leaked contracts and a video of a fatal accident involving construction company Pre-Con Products.
The responsible party for the hack claims that ABC, National Geographic, Fox and IFC are "on the feasting menu" for future video leaks and ransom demands The group also claims that the remainder of the season wasn't available as it was still in post-production when the server holding the files was penetrated.
Netflix is planning to release the entire season of the show on June 9.
Christine McKee
Malcolm Owen
Amber Neely
Andrew O'Hara
24 Comments
Okay, let’s hear the Freetard Manifesto once again from AI’s freetard contingent. Let’s hear how it won’t be stealing if you download these episodes and watch them. I’d bet my pension check that these downloads will be packed full of all manner of malware, key loggers, root kits, adware, viruses, trojans and the like. It’ll be like going to a whorehouse in Thailand. You’ll come away with something nasty for sure.
lol
Soooo, instead of having the smallest ounce of patriotic feeling over the Russians handily attacking your country (in a way that not even Chinese hackers have) and working to do something about it, techie boyz are content with...stealing episodes of a TV show and trying to extort the company that makes it.
"LOL" indeed.
Dumbest hacker extortion attempt ever.
I guarantee you people interested in OISNB already have access to Netflix. So this release would not lose Netflix any subscribers, and I don't think anybody was going to join all of a sudden for season 5, so Netflix is not going to "lose" any would be new subscribes either. If anything the very few that don't have Netflix might download it and say, "Hey I really like this show maybe I should get Netflix."
And it come out in a month anyway? With all the other content to watch out there who can't wait a month rather than pirate download?
Why would Netflix ever pay a dime?
Potential harm to Netflix- 0. Free advertising in the form of news stories mentioning Netflix and OITNB, plus possible getting more people into OITNB- priceless.