Cyber crimes are just getting worse with each passing day. From hacking celebrities’ cell phones and leaking nude photos and videos to stealing secure government information. Now, cybercriminals are apparently stealing movies from major film studios, as well.
The upcoming Disney film starring Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales has been stolen by hackers who are asking for ransom. According to Deadline, these hackers have demanded an enormous amount of money to be paid in Bitcoins. However, Disney has decided that they will not bend and give in to the demands of these hackers, and are currently working with the FBI to solve the case.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, if you’re a fan of piracy), these hackers said they would release parts of the film in increments if Disney doesn’t pay up soon.
Hector Monsegur, a former computer hacker turned FBI informant spoke to Deadline regarding this issue:
Attribution is probably the hardest thing the FBI is dealing with here. It’s nearly impossible because you have various hackers from pretty much anywhere. Also, they are aware of techniques to track them down. So you could have an Egyptian hacker who uses Russian software so it looks like it’s Russian but is actually from Egypt.
All these companies like Disney, Netflix and Discovery may have very good security teams but you have all these vendors and small production companies which don’t have great security and probably don’t have the budget to focus on their own security so hackers get in pretty easily. Remember back in the day when movies would leak online and they would go to a pirate bay? Now there has been a shift with the advent of ransomware so (these companies) are getting demands to pay for their own IP. Any studio is going to have a problem moving forward protecting their IPs.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales will be released in Malaysian cinemas on 25 May.
