Hackers this week released an email from HBO in which the company expressed willingness to pay them $250,000 as part of a negotiation over data swiped from HBO’s servers. The July 27 email was sent by John Beyler, an HBO executive who thanked the hackers for “making us aware” of previously unknown security vulnerabilities. The executive asked for a 1-week delay and said HBO was willing to make a “good faith” payment of $250,000, calling it a “bug bounty” reward for IT professionals rather than a ransom. The same hackers have subsequently released two dumps of HBO material and demanded a multi-million dollar ransom. “Hackers are not in this game for $250,000; this probably took them a lot of time and effort,” Goel said.

Source: Hindustan Times August 12, 2017 08:48 UTC