Hacker Who Attempted To Blackmail HBO Formally Charged

A hacker who attempted to ransom hacked Game of Thrones episodes from HBO formally identified and charged in the US

An Iranian hacker earlier this year attempted to ransom off episodes of Games of Thrones to producer, HBO. Using a whole bout of memes, his demand was simple ‘give me $6m or I’ll release the episodes’.

The matter was highly publicised at the time and in addition, by ourselves. Just because I’m a nice person, here’s a link to it if you want the gory details.

His attack was very legitimate as two unaired episodes emerged around the same time that the demand was made. He was pretty much demanding that HBO take the knee. If he didn’t get his $6m, he was going to release the lot.

What did he have exactly?

The exact content he had hacked is a little unclear. The report via CNET, suggests that he claimed he had successfully obtained 1.5tb of data from HBO. Incidentally, this wasn’t the only cyber-attack which HBO had experienced at the time.

The hacker, now identified as Behzad Mesri lives in Iran. He is a known hacker to the FBI and it is believed he has also been involved in recent attempts to hack nuclear power plants.

Having identified him, the US authorities have formally charged him with the offense. Now, this in itself is a little trivial. Relations with Iran are hardly good and to the best of my knowledge, there is no extradition treaty in place. Therefore as long as Behzad Mesri never leaves Iran (or goes to a country which the US does have an extradition treaty, it is likely he’ll never stand trial for this offense.

You never know though, sooner or later he might need to bend the knee.

What do you think? A pointless charge or a sensible move? – Let us know in the comments!