U.S. Prosecutors Charge Iranian With The HBO Hack That Almost Spoiled ‘GoT’

It looks like the bloke allegedly behind the huge HBO hack from earlier this year has been charged.

United States prosecutors have charged an Iranian national with computer fraud, wire fraud, extortion and identify theft, according to an indictment unsealed in the U.S. District Court.

Behzad Mesri, who also went by the pseudonym Skote Vahshat, is accused of stealing unaired episodes of Game of Thrones, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Ballers and The Deuce, among others, and threatening to release the data unless he was paid $US6 million ($7.9 million).

He remains in Iran, with officials admitting that it will be difficult to arrest him, [but] “he will forever be looking over his shoulder, and if he isn’t, he should be,” said acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Joon H. Kim.

It’s unlikely prosecutors will ever be able to arrest him. It’s also unlikely he’ll be able to travel outside of Iran. *shrug*

The indictment notes that Mesri previously “had worked on behalf of the Iranian military to conduct computer network attacks that targeted military systems, nuclear software systems, and Israeli infrastructure,” but doesn’t quite go as far as to formally accuse him of working for the Iranian government, reports the New York Times.

It also alleged that he helped an Iranian hacking group, Turk Black Hat Security Team, deface hundreds of websites in the U.S. and other countries.

Shortly after the HBO hack – which occurred in August this year, during Game of Thrones‘ seventh season – the hackers released a number of unaired episodes, including at least five scripts for the current Game of Thrones season.

They stole an insane 1.5 terabytes of data, making it the largest hack in history, and approximately seven times larger than the massive Sony hack of 2014.


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At PEDESTRIAN.TV, we independently choose and write about stuff we love and think you’ll froth too. We have affiliate partnerships so we might get a bit of money from any purchase you make based on our recs, cool? Cool. FYI – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

More Stuff From PEDESTRIAN.TV