Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales isn’t set for release until next week, but it might hit the internet a whole lot sooner if hackers have their way.
Two reports have surfaced this afternoon, from Deadline and the Hollywood Reporter. The gist is that Disney’s CEO, Bob Iger, has revealed that hackers are claiming to have access to an upcoming Disney film and will release it online unless the studio pays an undisclosed amount of bitcoins.
The film in question is believed to be Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Mean Tell No Tales, according to Deadline.
It’s not the first time a film or series has been held to ransom. The latest Orange Is The New Black season leaked online only weeks ago, with Netflix refusing to pay 50 bitcoins (approx. over $90,000) to prevent the series leaking online. At the time, Netflix told Gizmodo that “a production vendor used by several major TV studios had its security compromised”.
[referenced url=”https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2017/04/hackers-leak-new-episodes-of-orange-is-the-new-black-and-claim-more-leaks-to-come/” thumb=”https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/t_ku-large/yzrwnbamvnxowmthmvsb.jpg” title=”Hackers Leak New Episodes Of Orange Is The New Black And Claim More Leaks To Come” excerpt=”Netflix bingers received a weekend surprise when they woke up this morning to find the first ten episodes of the new season of Orange Is the New Black have allegedly been leaked to torrent networks. A hacker group has claimed responsibility and they say it only occurred because Netflix refused to pay a ransom. The group also claims to have more shows from other networks.”]
According to Iger, the hackers have threatened to release a five minute clip, followed by 20 minute clips of Dead Men Tell No Tales if their demands are not met. Disney is working with federal authorities to resolve the situation.
Comments
8 responses to “Report: The Latest Pirates Of The Caribbean Is Being Held To Ransom”
got to hand it to the hackers, at least for Orange they didn’t hit the mega company but instead a smaller one with probably less budget to handle to IT security
as for Pirates… meh after the first movie i think they were mostly a miss
Score one for “preservation” then?
Do they really expect this to work? How long has piracy (Hah, puns) been making movies available on or near release date and movies still end up doing well? All they’re doing is calling attention to themselves.
Lets assume that the hacking group has a copy of the film, and plan to release it online anyway. What downside is there for them in making a ransom request like this?
If Disney pays, they receive a large amount of untraceable (or hard to trace) money. If Disney refuses to pay, then they’re no worse off than where they started (assuming the ransom request doesn’t reveal more information about them than releasing the film will).
Filthy pirates!
Summon Michael Bolton!
Meh
Wouldn’t watch this if it were free.