Game of Thrones season 8 leak: Will episode 4 leak in FULL? Will there be more leaks?

HBO drama Game of Thrones has been subject to two leaks this year after DirecTV accidentally made episode one available early, while Amazon Prime Germany dropped the second episode hours before it was supposed to be made available. But could we expect to see more leaks in before the show comes to an end?

Amazon Prime Germany apologised for the mistake, telling BBC News: “We regret that for a short time Amazon customers in Germany were able to access episode two of season eight of Game of Thrones.”

A spokesperson for the company added: “This was an error and has been rectified.”

Express.co.uk spoke to several cybersecurity experts about how HBO could have been compromised by this.

“Half of the problems in cyber-security, ranging from very minor to very, very, serious things, are due to misconfiguration which is really human error – oops, someone forgot to do something,” said Dr Vitor Jesus, Senior Lecturer in Cybersecurity at Birmingham City University.

He went on to say: “These are accidents. The technical world is very, very complex. It’s very easy to make a small mistake that has huge consequences.

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“So, all in all, I’m not surprised in the least that someone pushed the wrong button or they forgot to push the right button and suddenly the second episode was made available for some time. I don’t find this the least hard to believe.”

He said human error “easily” accounted for 50 percent of technical mistakes within the cybersecurity world.

Dr Jesus said that following a leak like this, HBO would be reviewing its security practices and procedures to make sure it didn’t happen again.

“If it was a technical accident, a mistake, I don’t think it’s going to happen again for Game of Thrones at least,” he added.

Similarly, Ramsés Gallego, who works for the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) which focuses on IT governance and security, said these kind of leaks came down to human error.

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He said it was “a tragedy” that a leak like this could happen, not just for a TV show but more sensitive information such as health or personal details.

Whether there could be more Game of Thrones leaks and also hacks, Gallego said: “I am so sorry to say yes. It’s a big yes.”

He added: “We have seen it in the past, we’ve seen it in the present and we will see it in the future.” Gallego suggested that hacks in particular could be related to money exchange hands and also the prestige for a hacker of compromising a big company like HBO and to prove their ability to illegal access content.

A third expert Andy Barratt, the UK MD at cybersecurity consultancy Coalfire, went on to explain: “Just as we can count on some of our favourite GOT characters meeting gruesome ends this season, businesses can always count on hackers to pose a potential threat. This is especially true for high profile brands like HBO.

“Despite it becoming easier and more accessible to legally stream TV programmes online, pirated content remains as in demand so the threat that networks like HBO face isn’t going away.”

WILL THERE BE ANOTHER SERIES OF GAME OF THRONES?

Barratt continued: “As the recent accidental leak of episode two on Amazon in Germany showed, security breaches are not always malicious. But, that doesn’t mean they are completely outside of the network’s control.

“In these situations, it’s important that content providers are mindful of their streaming partners – even big names like Amazon Prime and Netflix. They must ensure proper content control procedures are enforced and undertake careful vetting of those given early access to shows.”

There are now just three episodes left of Game of Thrones and this week there were no leaks, suggesting any procedures have been subsequently tightened up.

However, there is no guarantee the show will not be vulnerable to a hack which happened on season seven when details of the finale were leaked on Reddit.

Game of Thrones season 8 airs on HBO in the US on Sundays 9pm ET and on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV in the UK on Mondays at 2am & 9pm BST

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source: express.co.uk