Orange Is The New Black

[The Ultimate Nullifier]

deadline.com/2017/04/orange-is-the-new-black-hacker-shares-stolen-episodes-1202079667/

‘Orange Is The New Black’ Hacker Shares Stolen Episodes; Blog Publishes List Of Possible Additional Shows – Update

Update, Sunday The cybersecurity blog databreaches.net has posted a show list it says was provided by Orange is the New Black hacker The Dark Overlord. The list of allegedly hacked shows includes titles such as IFC’s new Brockmire to FX’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the latter of which has already aired its latest season’s episodes.

Databreaches says Dark Overlord provided the blog with “a preview of some of the material, which included XXX: Return of Xander Cage (2017), Bill Nye Saves The World (Season 1), and Orange Is The New Black (Season 5).”

Deadline is unable to confirm the accuracy or veracity of the 37-title list, which includes such series as CBS’s NCIS Los Angeles, IFC‘s Portlandia, ABC‘s The Middle and an untitled Jason Alexander project.

Previous, Saturday The blackmailing hacker claiming to have released as many as 10 additional episodes of Netflix’s Orange is the New Black is threatening other networks and channels.

“We’re not quote done yet, though,” the hacking group known as The Dark Overlord wrote in a tweeted statement (neither the authenticity of the Twitter account nor the OITNB episodes on the file-sharing Pirate Bay site could be verified by Deadline). “We’re calling you out: ABC, National Geographic, Fox, IFC, and of course Netflix, still. There’s more Netflix on the feasting menu soon (in addition to the other studios, of course), but we’ll get to that later. Enjoy the fruits of _our_ labour.”

In a lengthier statement shared today via Twitter (but the last time Deadline checked, subsequently removed), the Dark Overlord wrote:

“Hello, this is thedarkoverlord (@tdohack3r) here to deliver a message. We’re back again. Did you miss us? Of course, you did. We’re willing to bet Netflix did as well. Speaking of which, Netflix clearly received our message considering they’ve made public statements and was one of the first people to download a fresh copy of their own property (Hello, 69.53.235.76!) – yet they continue to remain unresponsive. With this information in mind (and the fact that leaving people on cliffhangers isn’t fun) we’ve decided to release Episodes 2-10 of “Orange Is The New Black” Season 5 after many lengthy discussions at the office where alcohol was present. Do note that there are 13 episodes. However, we were so early when we acquired the copies that post hadn’t gotten around to Episodes 11-13. Perhaps Netflix will consider releasing the season earlier now that the cat’s out of the bag?”

Apparently the Season 5 episodes – 10 in all – were shared today before 6 a.m. ET, with the hackers making good on yesterday’s threat – for an unspecified ransom – to release the episodes prior to the Netflix series’ June 9 return. Netflix confirmed to Deadline that the company was “aware of the situation” and that a “production vendor used by several major TV studios had its security compromised and the appropriate law enforcement authorities are involved.” The streaming service told AP it is an “active situation” that the FBI and others are investigating.

[The Ultimate Nullifier]

deadline.com/2017/04/orange-is-the-new-black-hacker-blackmail-netflix-1202079534/

‘Orange Is The New Black’: Hacker Says He Stole New Season, Demands Ransom From Netflix

Orange is the new hack? Netflix is facing a cyber nightmare as a hacker claims to have stolen the upcoming fifth season of its popular prison dramedy and is demanding to be paid to keep it off the Internet ahead of its June 9 premiere. The Associated Press reports tonight that a person using the moniker The Dark Lord claims to have uploaded the first Season 5 episode of Orange Is the New Black to an illegal file-sharing service already, though AP said it could not confirm that the file is authentic.

In the ransom note, the hacker claims also to have stolen series from other studios by breaching a single company. The person threatened to release those programs as well if “modest” ransoms are not paid. “We are aware of the situation,” Netflix confirmed to Deadline in a statement. “A production vendor used by several major TV studios had its security compromised and the appropriate law enforcement authorities are involved.” The streaming service told AP it is an “active situation” that the FBI and others are investigating.

The news about threat to the acclaimed series comes less than two weeks after Netflix posted disappointment Q1 subscriber growth.

Season 5 of Orange Is the New Black takes place in near-real time over the course of three days. In the fourth-season finale, the death of a popular character led to a riot at Litchfield Penitentiary. It ended with another series regular holding a gun to a prison guard’s head. The series has won three consecutive SAG Awards for comedy ensemble and has been Emmy-nominated for both Outstanding Comedy and Outstanding Drama.

[The Ultimate Nullifier]

variety.com/2017/digital/news/oitnb-leak-hack-hollywood-security-1202403886/

‘Orange Is the New Black’ Leak Shows: Hollywood Cybersecurity Lives and Dies With Third-Party Vendors

This weekend’s leak of the upcoming fifth season of Netflix’s “Orange Is the New Black” may turn out to be Hollywood’s biggest breach since the Sony hack in 2014. But security experts aren’t surprised by the incident, even as details about it still emerge. That’s because many have been warning of weak security at third-party vendors for years.

“Third-party vendors have been a problem for a long time and will continue to be in the future,” said PwC principal Mark Lobel during an interview with Variety Saturday. Lobel declined to specifically comment on this weekend’s Netflix leak, which appears to be based on a security breach at Larson Studios, an audio post-production company that has also been working on shows like “Fargo,” “Designated Survivor” and “NCIS Los Angeles.” But he argued that security for third-party vendors continues to be a weak link for Hollywood.

The big Hollywood studios in particular have put a lot of efforts into improving their security after the Sony hack, which saw hackers likely associated with North Korea breach the company’s networks and release over 170,000 emails as well as 30,000 internal documents — many of which later were published on Wikileaks.

“The studios have raised the bar significantly in the last two, three years,” agreed Lobel. But those same multi-billion-dollar media companies continue to work with a huge network of third-party vendors, which are increasingly spread all across the globe.

Visual effects, subtitles, color grading, audio post-production and many other specialized tasks are routinely outsourced to other companies. Some of them are sizable players of their own, but others just have a dozen or fewer employees. Studios may audit the security of these vendors, but even the best audit only provides a snapshot of a single point in time, and doesn’t guarantee that an employee at one of those vendors won’t fall for a phishing scam the following week.

What’s more, security threats continuously evolve, forcing the Hollywood to catch up. “This is a game of chess with no kings,” said Lobel. Studios and their security teams can try to adapt to new threats, but small shops with a handful of employees may eventually slip up. “The third-party vendor has to be good all the time, the hacker only needs to be lucky once,” said Lobel. “It does not surprise me to see someone target a third-party vendor.”


In many ways, breaches like the one that now targeted Netflix and Larson Studios almost seem inevitable. Which begs the question: What should a company do when the worst has happened? The hackers who released “Orange Is the New Black” claimed they did so only after Netflix didn’t pay their ransom demands, and may be threatening ABC, Fox, IFC and NatGeo with similar demands.

“There is no right answer to the question whether it’s right for the companies to pay ransom,” said Lobel. On the one hand, giving in to such demands could obviously encourage further threats and finance criminals. But Lobel also acknowledged that companies targeted by ransom demands often do pay because they decide that not paying may be catastrophic to their bottom line.

In the end, Hollywood may be best advised to take this latest scare as a warning to not only improve security in-house, but also at third-party vendors — even if that means paying a bit more. Said Lobel: “Security controls are necessary overhead, but still overhead.”