Skip to main content

New ‘Orange is the New Black’ season leaked by hackers targeting Windows 7

netflix orange is the new black leaked microsoft windows 7 season 4 9
Netflix
If you were patiently waiting to revisit the inhabitants of Litchfield Penitentiary earlier this year, then it must have been a shock when 10 of the 13 episodes from the fifth season of the Netflix show Orange is the New Black were leaked online in April. According to the company that was hacked in order for the episodes to be liberated, the hack happened because it had a computer running Microsoft Windows 7.

Hacking group The Dark Overlord has claimed responsibility for leaking the new season more than a month before its scheduled release on Netflix. It breached the security of post-production company Larson Studios which worked on the new season. In an interview with Variety, it was revealed that Larson Studios’ security was breached because The Dark Overlord group was looking for computers running older versions of Windows, such as Windows 7, not perusing the internet to get the latest on Piper Chapman’s fictional life.

“They were basically just trolling around to see if they could find a computer that they could open,” said David Dondorf, Larson Studios chief engineer. “It wasn’t aimed at us.” The hackers stole and deleted all of the data on the company’s servers from numerous Hollywood studios that worked with Larson. The company first checked the servers and discovered the hack on Christmas Day 2016 after the company’s president, Rick Larson, and his wife, Jill, received an email from The Dark Overload threatening to leak everything it had from the company.

Larson Studios is working to make sure this never happens again by spending six figures to ramp up its security efforts. Some of those efforts involve keeping audio and video files separate, encrypting all data, and locking down all computers at Larson Studios. Larson claimed “a lot of what went on was ignorance,” in regard to Larson’s security efforts prior to the Orange is the New Black leak.

Windows 7 was released in 2009 and has been a hacker’s paradise as of late. Last year, Adobe systems running Windows 7 were among those targeted by hackers exploiting a vulnerability in its Flash player. Earlier this year, Microsoft stopped giving security updates to computers with the latest Intel or AMD processors running Windows 7.

Editors' Recommendations

Keith Nelson Jr.
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Keith Nelson Jr is a music/tech journalist making big pictures by connecting dots. Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY he…
Best new shows and movies to stream: ‘Mudbound,’ ‘The Punisher season 1,’ more
best new shows and movies to stream mudbound 1

Online streaming is bigger than ever, and with so many streaming services adding new shows and movies every week, it can be nearly impossible to sort through the good and the bad. If you need something to watch and don’t want to wade through the digital muck that washes up on the internet’s shores, follow our picks below for the best new shows and movies to stream on Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Amazon, and other services.

On the list this week: Mudbound, Landline, and more.

Read more
Best new shows and movies to stream: ‘Taboo’ season 1, ‘Lego Batman Movie,’ more
Best new shows and movies to stream

Online streaming is bigger than ever, and with so many streaming services adding new shows and movies every week, it can be nearly impossible to sort through the good and the bad. If you need something to watch and don’t want to wade through the digital muck that washes up on the internet’s shores, follow our picks below for the best new shows and movies to stream on Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Amazon, and other services.

On the list this week: Tom Hardy gets violent, and a pair of documentaries tackle two very different icons of the music world, John Coltrane and Rolling Stone.

Read more
The best new shows and movies to stream: ‘Transparent’ season 4 and more
best new shows and movies to stream Transparent season 4

Online streaming is bigger than ever, and with so many streaming services adding new shows and movies every week, it can be nearly impossible to sort through the good and the bad. If you need something to watch and don’t want to wade through the digital muck that washes up on the internet’s shores, follow our picks below for the best new shows and movies to stream on Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Amazon, and other services.

On the list this week: Transparent returns, as does Vice Principals.

Read more