Rocio Mateos
In a series of ironic events, internet pirates are threatening Disney to leak upcoming ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’. The thieves are demanding a ransom, but the company refuses to pay.
Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed on Monday that some hackers were claiming to have access to an upcoming Disney movie. They’re planning to release it unless the company pays a ransom. Iger said Disney is refusing to pay, and that the studio is working with federal investigators.
Although Iger did not reveal which movie the hackers claim to have. Deadline found out that he’s talking about ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales,’ which opens Friday, May 26.
What he did say was that the hackers demanded an “enormous amount” of money to be paid in Bitcoin, or else they would release bits of the film. It starts with five minutes, and then 20-minute chunks until the company pays what they’re asking for. The statement came during a town hall meeting with ABC employees in New York City.
Weeks ago, ‘Orange Is The New Black’ was leaked
The ransom demand of Disney follows the same issue Netflix faced some weeks ago, when a hacker, known as The Dark Overlord, uploaded 10 episodes of the upcoming season of ‘Orange Is The New Black’ to The Pirate Bay after Netflix refused to pay an undisclosed amount. The new season was set to launch on June 9.
The hacker later threatened networks such as Fox, Nat Geo, and ABC, while some Hollywood agencies have already been targeted in recent months, including UTA, ICM, and WME. It remains unclear if The Dark Overlord is also behind the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ hack.
Who is next on the list? FOX, IFC, NAT GEO, and ABC. Oh, what fun we’re all going to have. We’re not playing any games anymore.
— thedarkoverlord (@tdohack3r) April 29, 2017
Tracking the hacker is the hardest thing to do
Deadline talked to Hector Monsegur, who’s Director of Security Assessments for Rhino Security Labs, a regular expert on the Science Channel series ‘Outlaw Tech,’ and a former computer hacker that was arrested and then became an FBI informant. He said that “attribution is probably the hardest thing the FBI is dealing with here.”
“It’s nearly impossible [to track attacks] because you have various hackers from pretty much anywhere. Also, they are aware of techniques to track them down. So you could have an Egyptian hacker who uses Russian software so it looks like it’s Russian but is actually from Egypt,” he added.
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