The hacker had also managed to steal series from other broadcasters including ABC, Fox and National Geographic. Netflix told Entertainment Weekly that it was “aware of the situation” and added: “A production vendor used by several major TV studios had its security compromised and the appropriate law enforcement authorities are involved.”
The ‘Orange is the New Black’ episodes were due to be released officially from 9 June onwards. The series has been uploaded to file-sharing sites across the net after the US media company Netflix refused to pay a ransom. The hacker behind the theft uses the alias The Dark Overlord and before now has largely targeted hospitals and other healthcare institutions, according to Reuters.
On 29 April, the hacker wrote a message on the Pastebin website that scolded Netflix for not paying the ransom. It is not clear how much money the hacker wanted for keeping the stolen TV shows offline.
In addition, in January 2017 Netflix members were targeted by a phishing scheme that tried to steal their credit card details and other personal information.
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