A group of hackers posted a fresh cache of stolen HBO files online Monday, and demanded a multimillion-dollar ransom from the network to prevent the release of entire television series and other sensitive proprietary files.
HBO, which had previously acknowledged the theft of "proprietary information," said it's continuing to investigate and is working with police and cybersecurity experts.
In a swaggering five-minute video from "Mr. Smith" to HBO CEO Richard Plepler included in the dump, the hackers used white text scrolling on a black background to deliver an ultimatum. In short: Pay up within three days or see the group, which claims to have stolen 1.5 terabytes of HBO shows and confidential corporate data, upload entire series and sensitive proprietary files.
Specifically, the hackers demanded "our 6-month salary in bitcoin," and claimed they earn $12 million (Dh44 million) to $15 million (Dh55 million) a year from blackmailing organisations whose networks they have penetrated. They said they would only deal directly with "Richard" and only send one "letter" detailing how to pay.
The dump itself was just 3.4 gigabytes — mostly technical data that appears to provide a topography of HBO's network and to list network-administrator passwords. It includes what appear to be draft scripts from five Game of Thrones episodes, including one upcoming episode, and a month's worth of e-mail apparently from the account of Leslie Cohen, HBO's vice president for film programming.
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The network reiterated Monday that it doesn't believe that its e-mail system as a whole has been compromised.
The video text was written in often flawed but fluent English peppered with misspellings and pop-culture references.
The hackers claimed it took them about 6 months to breach HBO's network. Their biggest threat appears to be dumping videos of future shows online with their logo "HBO Is Falling" superimposed.
Many of the more than 50 internal documents in the dump were labelled "confidential," including a spreadsheet of legal claims against the network, job offer letters to several top executives, slides discussing future technology plans and a list of 37,977 e-mails called "Richard's Contact list," an apparent reference to Plepler.
One screenshot labelled "Highly Confidential" by the hackers listed folders such as "Penguin Random House," ''Licensing & Retail," ''Legal," ''International" and "Budgets." Another document appears to contain the confidential cast list for Game of Thrones, listing personal cellphone numbers and email addresses for actors such as Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey and Emilia Clark.
So far, however, the HBO leaks have been limited, falling well short of the chaos inflicted on Sony in 2014. In that attack, hackers possibly associated with North Korea unearthed thousands of embarrassing e-mails and released personal information, including salaries and social security numbers, of nearly 50,000 current and former Sony employees.
The video letter uploaded Monday claimed the hackers spend a half-million dollars a year to purchase "zero-day" exploits that let them break into networks through holes not yet know to Microsoft and other software companies. It claims HBO is the hackers' 17th target and that only three of their past targets refused to pay.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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