Data leak: Episodes of Netflix series leaked online in advance

Since 7 August, screenshots, clips and full episodes of several highly anticipated Netflix series have been appearing on TikTok, X and other social media – sometimes months before their scheduled release. Among others, five episodes of the second season of "Arcane" on Netflix and the third season of the British coming-of-age series "Heartstopper" were affected, as well as several episodes of "Dandadan" and episodes of "Ranma 1/2". Complete seasons are also said to be in circulation, such as the entire series "Terminator Zero", which was not due to start on Netflix in Germany until 29 August. The anime "Mononoke" was also allegedly leaked in its entirety. Crunchyroll's premiere of the third season of "Re:Zero" has also been leaked, but apparently from a different source.

In a statement to The Wrap, a Netflix spokesperson said: "One of our post-production partners has been compromised and unfortunately, footage from several of our titles has been leaked online. Our team is taking aggressive steps to remove it." Crunchyroll also confirmed the incident to The Wrap: "We have launched an investigation to identify the source of this leak and our team is taking steps to have it removed," it said.

Unfinished versions

Over the past two days, more and more links to the partially unfinished video material have been appearing on relevant websites. Screenshots show time codes and notices such as "Only for internal use" and "Property of Netflix". As users on Reddit and X report, various episodes are still missing visual effects and sounds. These indications suggest that the attack is being carried out by a post-production partner of the two streaming services, such as a dubbing or effects studio. It has since emerged that the content was stolen from Netflix's dubbing partner Iyuno. Iyuno Security Incident Update: "Iyuno is aware of a recent security issue involving unauthorised access to confidential content."

Users are complaining about the leaks and are calling on Netflix and Crunchyroll to release the series ahead of schedule to stem the flood of spoilers. According to rumors, material from the fifth season of "Stranger Things" could also be affected.

HBO was affected by a similar leak just last week: Before the season finale of "House of the Dragon", scenes from the first half of the highly anticipated episode circulated on social media. HBO blamed an international third-party provider for the unintended release.

Film studios repeatedly targeted

The attacks on Netflix and Crunchyroll are part of a series of attacks on film studios and production companies. Disney was also recently the victim of an attack: the self-proclaimed "hacktivists" from the group "NullBulge" claimed to have captured 1.2 TByte of internal Slack data, including unpublished projects, code and log-in data. Disney is currently investigating the case. However, unlike Netflix and Crunchyroll, no Disney content such as films or series have been published to date.

(vza)