{"id":1875,"date":"2017-11-28T13:07:08","date_gmt":"2017-11-28T18:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/?p=1875"},"modified":"2023-07-25T11:45:15","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T15:45:15","slug":"hbo-hacker-indicted-on-counts-of-fraud-and-extortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/2017\/11\/hbo-hacker-indicted-on-counts-of-fraud-and-extortion\/","title":{"rendered":"HBO Hacker Indicted on Counts of Fraud and Extortion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/11\/21\/business\/hbo-hack-charges.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Ftelevision\">The New York Times<\/a>, the man behind the cyber attack on HBO this summer has been indicted on charges of wire fraud, computer fraud, identity theft and extortion.\u00a0 Behzad Mesri, an Iranian national, hacked into HBO\u2019s system under the pseudonym \u201cSkote Vahshat\u201d, where he stole data from May to August. Additionally, Mesri released the stolen data including episodes of popular HBO shows like \u201cCurb Your Enthusiasm\u201d and the script for one episode of HBO\u2019s highest grossing show, \u201cGame of Thrones.\u201d The gradual release of these episodes was done to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/08\/07\/business\/hackers-demand-ransom-for-stolen-hbo-files.html\">extort millions of dollars<\/a> from HBO.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the episodes and scripts, Mesri was able to collect financial documents, contact lists, and employee e-mails totaling 1.5 terabytes of data theft. Shortly after the attack, HBO\u2019s chief executive <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/07\/31\/business\/media\/hbo-hack-game-of-thrones.html\">wrote an e-mail<\/a> to employees saying that the hack is \u201cunsettling and disturbing for all,\u201d but \u201cunfortunately all too familiar in the world we now find ourselves a part of.\u201d This is especially true for HBO who has found itself a victim of cyber attacks on more than one occasion. In 2015, four episodes of \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d were released online prior to their airdate. Earlier this year, Netflix was also a target of hackers who released episodes of \u201cOrange is the New Black.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Although hacking has become a prevalent concern for networks wishing to keep their online data secure, there is still difficulty in finding and punishing online hackers. Joon H. Kim, the acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York where the HBO indictment has been released, has acknowledged the difficulty in punishing a foreign national. Currently, Mesri is still in Iran and detaining him is unlikely. However, Kim commented that Mesri should \u201cforever be looking over his shoulder.\u201d As of now, that warning is all the government can do to prevent further attacks by the hacker.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/78\/2017\/11\/Backlit_keyboard.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1876\" src=\"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/78\/2017\/11\/Backlit_keyboard-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/78\/2017\/11\/Backlit_keyboard-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/78\/2017\/11\/Backlit_keyboard-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/78\/2017\/11\/Backlit_keyboard.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Jenna El-Fakih is an Entertainment Highlight Contributor for the Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law and a current first year student at Harvard Law School (Class of 2020).<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Photo:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/User:Colin\">User:Colin<\/a> \/\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lizenzhinweisgenerator.de\/wiki\/Main_Page\">Wikimedia Commons<\/a>\u00a0\/\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Backlit_keyboard.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Backlit keyboard<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/legalcode\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to The New York Times, the man behind the cyber attack on HBO this summer has been indicted on charges of wire fraud, computer fraud, identity theft and extortion.\u00a0 Behzad Mesri, an Iranian national, hacked into HBO\u2019s system under the pseudonym \u201cSkote Vahshat\u201d, where he stole data from May to August. Additionally, Mesri released [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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