According to US media reports, Disney Chairman and CEO; Robert Iger said, on Monday hackers claim to have access to one of the company’s unreleased movies and are currently demanding a huge ransom. The weekly reports – citing multiple unnamed sources – that the company is working with federal agents and monitoring for leaks online.
The cyber-thieves demanded to be paid in online currency Bitcoin and are threatening to release five minutes of the movie, followed by 20-minute segments until the ransom is delivered.
The Hollywood Reporter, quoting Robert from a meeting in New York with employees of the Disney-owned ABC television network say he didn’t reveal which film had been stolen but said the company would not be giving in to the blackmail attempt.
Some of the movies that are rumored to be in the hands of the hackers are Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, which opens on May 26 while some claim it might be Pixar’s Cars 3, which is scheduled due for release next month.
Last weekend, reports recorded more than 200,000 PCs in 150 countries were hit by a ransomware cyber-attack, described as the largest-ever of its kind. Banking institutions, hospitals, government agencies, schools, to name a few have been among a variety of targets for hackers exploiting vulnerabilities in older Microsoft computer operating systems; Windows XP which the company stopped supporting early this month.
Microsoft president Brad Smith said the US National Security Agency had developed the code used in the attack.[related-posts]
