Game of Thrones leak: Police arrest four people in India after stolen episode is posted online before air date

Police in India have arrested four people suspected of leaking episodes of Game of Thrones before they were aired on HBO.

Authorities have confirmed that three of those arrested are current employees of Prime Focus Technology, while one is a former employee.

The Mumbai-based company stores and processes the fantasy show for Indian streaming site, Hotstar.

“We investigated the case and have arrested four individuals for unauthorised publication of the fourth episode from season seven," Deputy Commissioner of Police Akbar Pathan told AFP news agency.

“We have arrested the four accused. Three of them are employees of the firm while one is a former employee,” he added.

Two weeks ago an episode of Game of Thrones was leaked online a few days ahead of its air date, being made available on Google Drive and quickly circulated on Reddit on the Friday, before being removed.

The copy of the eagerly-awaited new episode featured a ‘for internal viewing only’ watermark, suggesting that it is the genuine episode.

HBO was subject to a cyber-attack last week, but distribution partner Star India quickly confirmed that the leak came from their compromised database.

This confirms the compromise of episode 4 of Game of Thrones Season 7, earlier this afternoon,” said a Star India spokesperson.

“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.”

A separate cyber-attack on HBO saw a number of episodes, scripts and personal cast information fall into the hands of hackers last week.