Looks like tough times are ahead for HBO and Game of Thrones. The channel's network was recently hacked exposing up to 1.5 terabytes of data. The hackers also released an upcoming episode of Game of Thrones and episodes of other popular HBO series. Though the motivation of the hack is still unclear, HBO is likely to face more damages in the upcoming days.
On 4 August, the unreleased episode of Game of Thrones, which was scheduled to debut on Sunday (6 August), was leaked on Reddit by an unidentified member in a low-quality format. A report on The Verge even confirmed that this episode is genuine, and the copy includes a "for internal viewing only" watermark attached.
A spokesperson from HBO confirmed that the leak was related to one of HBO's distribution partners, Star India, and had no relation to the hack. "This confirms the compromise of episode 4 of Game of Thrones Season 7, earlier this afternoon. We take this breach very seriously and have immediately initiated forensic investigations at our and the technology partner's end to swiftly determine the cause. This is a grave issue and we are taking appropriate legal remedial action," a statement from a Star India representative said.
HBO Chief Executive Richard Plepler reportedly told his staff member via email that either he or the company believes that there was a snuff in the e-mail system but the network will continue to work alongside law enforcement to investigate the security breach.
Titled "The Spoils of the War," the preview showed Cersei delineating her goal that is to establish control over the seven kingdoms. However, that seems to be little tricky because as Jamie said though she is sitting on the Iron Throne as the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms she doesn't even have three kingdoms under her complete control. Despite all the hiccups, Cersei manages to have an upper hand in the battle with the help of Euron and Jaime. Hard to digest the proceedings, Daenery says, "All my allies are gone. Enough with the clever plans." Well, is he hinting at the much-expected gory battle for the Iron Throne. Well, that looks so!
