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HBO’s summer of cyber-woes continues: Episode six of Game of Thrones season seven has been leaked to internet piracy sites, four days ahead of Sunday’s premiere.
This time, it wasn’t hackers or rogue employees at a production facility: The Game of Thrones episode leaked out after it was inadvertently published by HBO Nordic and HBO España services. According to HBO, the leak appears to have stemmed from a mistake by a third-party vendor in those territories.
Links to the leaked GOT episode on Reddit — shared via YouTube, Twitch and other streaming services — were swiftly taken down. However, the segment has already been snatched and shared via torrent networks, according to U.K. newspaper the Independent, which said it verified the authenticity of the HD copy.
HBO said the latest leak of its highest-profile series was unrelated to the massive hack of its systems in late July.
In a separate incident two weeks ago, the fourth episode of the current season of Game of Thrones leaked out. That came from a data-management vendor enlisted by 21st Century Fox-owned Sky India. Police in Mumbai have arrested four people, who are current or former employees of Prime Focus Technologies, in connection with the crime.
What’s unclear is how much the cyberattack and episode leaks have hurt HBO’s business — if at all. Game of Thrones has been one of the most-pirated TV shows for years, and it hasn’t crimped ratings or subscriber numbers for the premium cabler.
