Entertainment

HBO hackers leak upcoming episodes of Insecure, Curb Your Enthusiasm

The hackers who broke into HBO's computer network have released more unaired episodes, including several from the highly anticipated return of Curb Your Enthusiasm, which debuts in October.

Network acknowledged hacking in July, which caused release of several unaired shows including Game of Thrones

Sunday's episode of Insecure, starring Issa Rae, is among the latest shows being leaked by HBO hackers. (Source: Issa Rae Productions)

Hackers continue to pester HBO, but didn't release any material related to the network's hit show Game of Thrones in their latest leak.

The hackers, who broke into HBO's computer network and have been doling out stolen information for the past several weeks, released more unaired episodes, including several of the highly anticipated return of Curb Your Enthusiasm, which debuts in October.

The latest dump also includes Sunday night's episode of Insecure, a popular comedy-drama which explores the female black experience.

There also appear to be leaked episodes of other lower-profile shows, including the Dwayne Johnson-led football comedy-drama Ballers, some from the unaired shows Barry and The Deuce, a comedy special and other programming. They did not release episodes of HBO's ratings hit Game of Thrones.

The network acknowledged the hack in late July, and the thieves have been dribbling out stolen video and documents since then while demanding a multimillion-dollar ransom.

They have previously leaked Game of Thrones scripts, sensitive internal documents like job offer letters and a month's worth of emails from a programming executive. But their intrusion has so far fallen well short of the chaos inflicted on Sony when the studio was hacked in 2014.

Still, the criminals may be holding on to more damaging data — both intellectual property, like unaired programming, and sensitive personal information of HBO employees — that they can use as leverage to try to get money from HBO, said Gartner analyst Avivah Litan.

"It's kind of like kidnap and ransom and torture," she said. "Eventually HBO may have to give in."

In an emailed statement Sunday, HBO said it's "not going to participate" in what it described as attempts to generate attention by dropping "bits and pieces of stolen information." The company added that it was not in communication with the hackers. It has said previously that it doesn't believe its email system as a whole was breached.

With files from CBC News