The RSA Conference | By: Tony Kontzer | GPE – September 14, 2017:
It’s hard to stonewall hackers who are threatening to share sensitive data they’ve stolen about customers and employees on the dark web if they don’t receive a ransom. The prospect of calling the bluff and risking the violation of customers’ and employees’ privacy understandably causes many companies to cave.
Originally published August 22, 2017: But when the stolen data being released is unseen television shows — still an admittedly valuable piece of intellectual property — a company’s resolve apparently strengthens.
Look no further than HBO, the victim of a well-documented hack a few weeks ago in which Game of Thrones scripts, financial documents and even entire episodes of other shows were swiped. After reportedly offering a $250,000 “bug bounty” to the hackers as more of an IT security consulting fee rather than a ransom, the network subsequently chose to take a hard line with the culprits, refusing to pay the nearly $6 million that’s been demanded.
As it’s dug in its heels, it’s paid a steeper price as the hackers continued to release more data earlier this week – including unseen episodes of the coming season of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
And that, in turn, only caused HBO to ratchet up its resolve a bit, essentially channeling Dirty Harry. It hasn’t literally said, “Go ahead, punk, make my day,” but it might as well have.
“The hacker may continue to drop bits and pieces of stolen information in an attempt to generate media attention,” the network said in a defiant statement released after the Curb leak. “That’s a game we’re not going to participate in.”
The case represents a potentially important precedent for how future hacks of non-personal intellectual property might play out. Unlike hacks (and subsequent leaks) of personally identifiable information, which force companies to consider the impact on those whose personal data is in play, the theft of IP that doesn’t expose personal information gives the victimized company more choices in how to respond.
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