Month: August 2017

Hackers Leak More Confidential Game of Thrones Files

The hackers who stole proprietary information from HBO are not done with the media giant yet. A fresh batch of leaks has surfaced online, revealing new Game of Thrones information, including a script for the upcoming fifth episode. The new leak also includes a letter that was previously sent to HBO which demanded a ransom payment.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Last week, news broke that a hacker, or hackers, had compromised the network of the American cable and television network HBO.

Those responsible sent out an email to reporters, announcing the prominent breach, and leaked files surfaced on the dedicated website Winter-leak.com.

While the latter is no longer accessible, the hackers are not done yet. Another curated batch of leaked files has now appeared online, revealing more Game of Thrones spoilers, marketing plans, and other confidential HBO files.

The first leak put a preliminary outline of the fourth episode of the current Game of Thrones season in the spotlight, and the second batch follows up with the same for the upcoming fifth episode.

Although the outline was prepared over a year ago, it likely contains various accurate spoilers, which we won’t repeat here.

Preliminary outline S07E05

The new data dump, which is a subsection of the 1.5 terabytes of data the hackers claimed to have in their possession, also lists a variety of other Game of Thrones related files.

Among other items, there’s a confidential cast list for the current season, a highly confidential “Game of Ideas” brief, an outline of GoT marketing strategies, and a Game of Thrones roadmap. The information all appears to be a few months old.

The hackers took a screenshot of several folders, where the files may have been taken from, as seen below.

Folders screenshot

In addition, the hackers provided ‘proof’ that they have emails, which according to AP point to HBO’s vice president for film programming Leslie Cohen.

Finally, the new batch contains a video letter to HBO CEO Richard Plepler, titled “First letter to HBO,” where a certain Mr. Smith takes credit for the hack. The letter offered to keep the information away from the public, in exchange for a ransom payment.

First letter to HBO

For spoiler-eager Game of Thrones fans the hack is a true treasure trove. However, like the first batch, no leaked episodes are included. And, based on another screenshot, these are probably not on the way either.

A “Series Screenshot” includes a list of likely compromised titles, such as The Deviant Ones and the previously leaked Barry, Ballers, and Room 104, but no Game of Thrones.

A leak of the fourth GoT episode did appear online late last week, but this wasn’t linked to the breach of HBO’s network. Still, HBO is likely not amused and will do everything in its power to catch those responsible.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Youtube: Mit Machine Learning und NGOs gegen Terrorinhalte vorgehen

Um terroristische und andere rechtswidrige Inhalte zu erkennen, setzt Youtube neuerdings maschinelles Lernen ein. Erste Erfolge sprechen für das System. Trotzdem sind Menschen für die Filterung solcher Videos noch unverzichtbar. (Youtube, Google)

Um terroristische und andere rechtswidrige Inhalte zu erkennen, setzt Youtube neuerdings maschinelles Lernen ein. Erste Erfolge sprechen für das System. Trotzdem sind Menschen für die Filterung solcher Videos noch unverzichtbar. (Youtube, Google)

Fortnite poisons a potentially great game with agonizing F2P limits

“Paid early access” experiment starts strong, but economics ruin the potential.

Enlarge / At its best, Fortnite looks (and feels) like this nicely staged promo pic of in-game action. However, so many free-to-play annoyances drag this "build a base, blast some zombies" potential to the unseemly depths. (credit: Epic Games)

Fortnite comes very close to standing out from the crowded online-shooter fray. Some video games let you hunker down with friends and shoot a zillion oncoming zombies. Other games let you build a giant, personalized fortress. What if a single game let you do both—and made the fort-building stuff a cinch? (Basically, a particularly smooth gaming combo of peanut butter and chocolate.)

To test that attractive sales pitch, I have racked up about a week of on-and-off Fortnite testing, spread over the two weeks since the game launched in a peculiar "paid early access" manner. With that much time, I've confirmed that Fortnite includes a darned good synergy of those game ideas, backed by robust game mechanics, incredible art design, and a base-building system that really finds a good balance between simplicity and depth.

Trouble is, I've also struggled to have fun with the results thus far. While Epic has declared that this is an "early access" game for the foreseeable future, whose elements are subject to change, I'm concerned that Fortnite's root issue can't be so easily patched: the poisonous real-money economics stirred into the gameplay pot.

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Ars Asks: A defiant in-depth defense against dastardly drones

We’ve got one last survey, and we’d appreciate your help with it!

Enlarge / Aurich tells me he didn't purposefully make the drone look like it has a shocked face, but I can't un-see it. (credit: Aurich / Thinkstock)

We've asked twice about which IT nightmares are most likely to keep you up at night, and now we're going to finish off our round of surveys with what will be the last one for a while: we want to know what you think about drones. And not just general thoughts on drones, either—we're interested in your thoughts about drones behaving badly and what can be done about them.

"Drones" in this usage refers generally to small, remotely piloted quadcopter drones with some amount of programmed autonomy—devices like DJI's overwhelmingly popular Phantom series. In addition to live remote piloting, these types of quadcopters have the ability to fly a preprogrammed route (one that might pass far beyond the radio range of the drone's remote control) and capture images and video as they do so. This makes them potentially useful for tasks like visual property surveillance—or perhaps also spying on distant neighbors if that's your thing. Meanwhile, within the US and elsewhere, courts and legislatures are taking up the question of what rights people have to defend themselves against unwanted surveillance.

As I've noted in past posts, surveys like this are intended for us to be able to take the Ars audience's temperature on certain topics so that we can write more and better stories about the things you care about. In this case, as the legislative landscape around drones changes—rapidly—we're interested in finding out more about what you folks think about the methods used to keep drones away from places where they shouldn't be. It would be super-awesome If you could find five minutes to help us out!

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Freetime: Amazons Kinderangebot auf fast allen Android-Geräten nutzbar

Amazon hat Freetime als App in Googles Play Store gebracht – damit kann das Kinderangebot künftig auf den meisten Android-Geräten genutzt werden. Ebenfalls eingebaut sind die gleichen Kontrollfunktionen, die es bisher nur auf den Fire-Tablets gab. (Amazon, Smartphone)

Amazon hat Freetime als App in Googles Play Store gebracht - damit kann das Kinderangebot künftig auf den meisten Android-Geräten genutzt werden. Ebenfalls eingebaut sind die gleichen Kontrollfunktionen, die es bisher nur auf den Fire-Tablets gab. (Amazon, Smartphone)

ePrivacy-Verordnung: EU startet neuen Anlauf zur Vorratsdatenspeicherung

Trotz der einschlägigen Urteile des EuGH geben die EU-Staaten die Versuche nicht auf, gespeicherte Verkehrsdaten zur Strafverfolgung zu nutzen. “Alle Optionen” sollen geprüft werden. (Datenschutz, Skype)

Trotz der einschlägigen Urteile des EuGH geben die EU-Staaten die Versuche nicht auf, gespeicherte Verkehrsdaten zur Strafverfolgung zu nutzen. "Alle Optionen" sollen geprüft werden. (Datenschutz, Skype)

How one man hauled Uber into small-claims court and won $4,000

A driver took off with Dane Wilcox’s laptop, and Uber refused to pay him back.

Enlarge / Dane Wilcox and his sister selling FYM hot sauce. (credit: Dan Wilcox)

Dane Wilcox had come to Boston for two reasons: hot sauce and Dota 2. Getting into a months-long courtroom fight with the world's largest startup was never in the plan.

The former IT consultant had become a hot-sauce entrepreneur in 2014, after a surprisingly successful Kickstarter campaign to launch his brand, "FYM Hot Sauce." He picked a quirky method of advertising that suited his own interests: Wilcox sponsored a team that played a popular video game, Dota 2. Wilcox played the game himself and had tired of seeing ads for gambling websites. So looking for a different and fun way to promote his product, he got a team on board and became its flagship sponsor.

After a long flight from his home in Portland, Oregon, Wilcox landed in Boston on December 5, 2016. He was looking forward to getting straight to the Airbnb he'd rented and getting some rest. But then he made a fateful decision—to use the Uber app to get a ride from the airport. It was the first Uber ride he'd ever taken.

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Cloud: USV-Markt wächst durch die boomende Cloud

Die Cloud befindet sich im Aufschwung, doch muss deren Hardware möglichst vor Stromausfällen geschützt werden. Aus diesem Grund steigt die Nachfrage an USVs seit 2016 wieder an. Bis 2018 sind die Aussichten sehr positiv. (Cloud Computing, Netzwerk)

Die Cloud befindet sich im Aufschwung, doch muss deren Hardware möglichst vor Stromausfällen geschützt werden. Aus diesem Grund steigt die Nachfrage an USVs seit 2016 wieder an. Bis 2018 sind die Aussichten sehr positiv. (Cloud Computing, Netzwerk)

Netflix, Digital Sales Fail to Offset Decline in Home Entertainment Purchases

Gains in digital sell-through failed to arrest the decline in home entertainment purchases, but huge gains in subscription streaming helped total consumer spending edge up 2.6% compared to the same period from 2016, according to the latest industry rep…



Gains in digital sell-through failed to arrest the decline in home entertainment purchases, but huge gains in subscription streaming helped total consumer spending edge up 2.6% compared to the same period from 2016, according to the latest industry report from DEG.

Total consumer spending was $9.17 billion for the first half of 2017, up from the $8.94 billion from the same period in 2016.

A massive 24% rise in subscription streaming spending, led mostly by Netflix, was the main reason for the rise in spending, as home entertainment purchases actually dropped $190 million, or 5.2%.

The drop in purchases was largely down to a $280 million (10.4%) decline in physical media sales, although DEG's figures show the decline slowing in Q2 thanks to a 2% rise in Blu-ray sales. Electronic sellthrough helped to offset losses from physical sellthrough, with sales rising 8.3% to $1.07 billion.

This data seems to indicate a shift in consumer sentiment, first away from physical to digital, and second, away from "owning" to a subscription model.

4K adoption continued strongly in the first half of 2017, with 4.8 million 4K TVs sold in the period, coupled with over 1 million UHD Blu-ray players sold. Disney is still yet to enter the UHD Blu-ray market, but is expected to do so this quarter and this will increase the number of UHD titles available on the market (currently at 166).

[via Home Media Magazine]