Hackers leaked the 5th season of “Orange is the new black”

If you have been anxiously waiting for the 5th season of the TV series “Orange is the new black”, rejoice: the new season has been leaked by a hacker^[1] (introducing himself as the Dark Overlord)^[2] and posted on the Pirate Bay last weekend. Such act was the primary result of the conflict between Netflix and the perpetrator who demanded a ransom^[3]. In case he or she did not receive the required money, the crook would publish the series online. Netflix did not give in to blackmailing – as a result, the racketeer published the first episode on Friday night on the Pirate Bay. Later on, the following nine episodes have been leaked during the weekend.

Originally, the release date was scheduled to be June 9. However, the hacker ruined Netflix's plans. The cyber villain demanded 50 bitcoin ($71,792.95). The news about the leaked episodes quickly broke out after the hacker promoted its misdeed on Twitter, Github, and other domains. However, the incident quickly caught the FBI’s attention. Furthermore, the hack worries other broadcasters as well^[4]. In the message addressed to the company, the hacker claims to possess access to another 37 series. While netizens got carried away and asked for the hackers to publish final episodes of other TV series and drama, the FBI continues investigating the case. Though the ulterior motives of this cyber criminals do not seem to be highly sophisticated, the incident serves as another wake-up call for the virtual community. Such leak is not the only in past days. A couple of days, the perpetrators blackmailed Ashley Madison’s users^[5] to pay the ransom.

Unfortunately, companies do not pay enough attention to proper cyber education and prevention measures until they experience the hack themselves^[6]. One of the reasons why they do not invest into cyber security is the lack of IT experts who could counterattack the rapidly growing number of hackers. Finally, the significant percent of the virtual community is not aware of the fact how much confidential data they publish online. While it is true that proper software is crucial for the cyber security, cautiousness plays a significant role as well.