Hackers Threaten to Leak New Pirates of the Caribbean Film Ahead of Film Release
Posted on May 19, 2017
Hackers claim to have obtained a copy of the new Pirates movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. The fifth film in the franchise features the return of Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow. This time he has a ship filled with the undead after him.
Deadline reports that hackers are holding the film ransom and threatening to release it if Disney does not pay them a huge ransom in Bitcoin. Disney is not going to pay the fee and they are working with the FBI to track down the hackers.
It could hurt the box office if the hackers release the film before the official release date (May 26). If the hackers do release the film the extent of the damage is going to be hard to quantify. Films arrive fairly quickly these days on DVD, Blu-ray and On Demand services. This makes it less likely people will try to download pirated films and TV shows. Search engines and social media also try and help remove links to pirated content. People should also avoid downloads with pirated content in general because they may contain embedded malware.
There is certainly some irony here with a movie about pirates being hacked by pirates but it is a very serious issue. CBS This Morning reports that major movie studios are hiring cyber security professionals to combat the rise in piracy. The theft of the new Pirates movie is the biggest film-related hack since Sony was hacked in 2014. Take a look: