HBO Accidentally Released Next Week's 'Game of Thrones' Episode
Hackers had nothing to do with it.
Game of Thrones has seen its fair share of leaks this season. Not only have scripts and the episode “The Spoils of War” been leaked, but amidst the confusion, HBO accidentally released the next episode, “Death Is The Enemy.” After torrents for episode four were leaked, four hackers from India were arrested as a result. However, episode six, due to air this weekend on August 20, was accidentally released by HBO Nordic in Spain.
After an hour it was quickly pulled, but an hour is all the internet needs to copy an episode and upload it on torrent sites, which is what happened here. The episode even made an appearance on the infamous Freefolk Game of Thrones subreddit, where the first few season five episodes could be found during that season’s leak mishap.
What makes this different from previous leaks and theft is that this was a mistake on the part of an HBO affiliate. An earlier HBO breach saw hackers demand a $6 million USD ransom, threatening to leak Game of Thrones scripts, personal addresses, and emails. HBO even offered hackers $250,000 USD as a show of “good faith” bug bounty payment in a leaked email.
Despite all the drama though, this season of the show has continued to break records, with “The Spoils of War” setting a record right before the following installment “Eastwatch” took its place.
