14 DAY TRIAL // The fourth episode of Game of Thrones season 7 has leaked to the web a few minutes ago, with thousands of views recorded on links posted on Google Drive and Vidme.
HBO has already tried to take down the episode, and Google Drive links are already removed right now, but the episode is being reposted on other websites, and it’s hard to believe it can be pulled completely. There’s a good chance it shows up on torrent sites later today, and Reddit users seem to discover new links as the same pace at which HBO takes pages offline.
The fourth episode of GOT season 7 appears to come in a low-quality format, and it is not in HD resolution, carrying a “for internal viewing only” watermark and the logo of what has been identified to be Star India, the Indian distributor of the TV series.
Episode stolen from HBO’s Indian partner
Star India has confirmed the video is legit, but it’s not yet known how the episode leaked to the web and the company says it’s investigating to find more information.
“This confirms the compromise of episode 4 of Game of Thrones Season 7, earlier this afternoon,” a Star India spokesperson was quoted as saying. “We take this breach very seriously and have immediately initiated forensic investigations at our and the technology partner’s end to swiftly determine the cause. This is a grave issue and we are taking appropriate legal remedial action.”
HBO has recently been hacked and the attackers claimed they stole no less than 1.5 terabytes of data, including full episodes of some popular TV series. Still, this is the first time an episode is published online, as hackers have previously leaked only scripts of Game of Thrones.
It’s not yet clear if the HBO hack is in any way linked to this leak, but there’s a good chance it is not given that the episode posted online has the watermark of an Indian HBO partner. A second breach might have impacted Star India, but such information is yet to be confirmed.
The hackers who managed to breach HBO also leaked episodes of other two TV shows, namely Ballers and Room 104, and it’s believed that some other videos could be posted online very soon.