Buzz
In the digital age, keeping secrets has become an almost impossible task. Every day, there's a new controversy surrounding stolen emails or confidential data from various sources, or even spoilers about popular shows making their way onto online forums.
For businesses, safeguarding confidential information seems to require total isolation from the outside world. Yet, even that may not be enough to prevent leaks, as you'll soon discover.
10. AOL Exposes The Search Histories Of Over 650,000 Users
For a full three days, AOL hosted a file that contained three months of detailed search data from more than half a million of its users. Unexpectedly, this wasn’t a mistake. AOL intentionally made this information public for research purposes. In an effort to protect its customers' identities, AOL replaced the users' names with numbers above their search logs. However, AOL neglected to censor the actual searches, making it all too simple to pinpoint users based on their search histories.
Have you ever Googled your own name or searched for details about your home? If you had, and your search history ended up on AOL’s list of 650,000 users, your entire search history could easily be linked back to you, with no means to prevent curious eyes from peeking into your life. The information was so easy to trace that within days of the leak, websites started revealing the names of those on the list—but only after gaining consent from the individuals involved, of course.
9. Sony Leaks Game Demo, Ruins Its Entire Marketing Plan
There was a time when companies could launch a product and keep its secrets hidden, confident that no one would discover their surprises for years. Today, with data miners scraping every bit of information they can find, the best a company can hope for is that their secret remains under wraps until the product is officially released. Unfortunately for Sony, this wasn’t the case when they released a beta version of their first-ever mascot fighting game, the highly anticipated PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.
With just a few characters and levels available, data miners who accessed the beta eagerly dissected the game’s files, hunting for clues about unannounced features and characters. Their efforts paid off when a file surfaced, exposing the entire roster of characters. This leak was a major blow to the company, as it completely ruined their carefully planned advertising campaign. With nothing left to reveal and months before the game’s release, Sony was left hoping that gamers wouldn’t lose interest.
8. Half of Game of Thrones Season 5 Leaked Online Before Its Premiere
It’s not unusual for production companies to send out screener copies of major films or the first episodes of their popular series to select trusted media outlets long before the official premiere. These advance screenings are intended to build buzz through reviews or to prepare those who will be voting in various award shows. One such company is HBO, who sent out the first half of season five of the wildly popular Game of Thrones for review.
This leak marked likely the last time HBO will attempt something like this, as the entire first half of the season was leaked online weeks before it aired. Typically, companies add a special code in various locations on the screener, which makes it easier to identify leakers even if the code is blurred. HBO, however, chose to place a single stationary code in one area, which didn’t change between episodes. The leaker simply had to blur that one spot, and the job was done. Though the fifth season of Game of Thrones remained a hit, that leak will be a thorn in HBO's side for quite a while.
7. Game Developer Attempts A ‘Taken’ Style Rescue Of Hacker
In the fall of 2003, Valve Corporation made a public announcement that it wouldn’t meet its September 30 deadline for the much-anticipated Half-Life 2, a game that had been in development for five years and cost millions of dollars. To make matters worse, the company began experiencing unexplained server issues and random computer crashes during work hours. That’s when the unthinkable occurred: The game Valve had worked so hard on mysteriously appeared online for download.
Unbeknownst to Valve, a German hacker had gained unauthorized access to its database weeks earlier, and he was the one responsible for all the issues the company had been facing. This hacker, a fan of the Half-Life series, had hoped to learn more about the game but never expected to get his hands on the entire incomplete version. After the game leaked online, the hacker personally emailed Valve’s Gabe Newell to apologize for his actions. To his surprise, Valve didn’t seem angry but even extended a job interview offer to him.
The company worked with the hacker to help him secure a green card so he could travel to the U.S. for the interview—but the interview was never going to happen. In secret, Valve had been collaborating with the FBI to bring the hacker to American soil and charge him with enough crimes to imprison him for a long time. When German authorities caught wind of Valve's plan, they quickly arrested the hacker before he could board a flight. He ended up serving just two years of probation but has since turned his life around.
6. BBC Leaks Highly Incomplete Versions Of The New Doctor Who
After Matt Smith’s departure as the 11th Doctor, the BBC announced that the actor stepping into the role would be none other than lifelong Doctor Who fan Peter Capaldi. This was a big deal, as the previous Doctors were much younger than Peter, and this marked the first time the rebooted Doctor Who series would feature an older Doctor. Fans were eager to see how this new incarnation of the Doctor would differ from the previous ones. With nearly nine months before the new season aired, fans were left completely in the dark.
That was, of course, until entire scripts from the first few episodes of the new series began leaking well over a month ahead of time. The exact cause of the leaks isn’t clear, but the BBC stated that they likely occurred when the scripts were sent to a new BBC office in Latin America that had an unsecured server. Not long after, low-quality, black-and-white versions of the episodes—lacking most of the special effects but still complete—surfaced online. These leaks gave eager fans a sneak peek at what the new Doctor had to offer months before the official premiere.
5. Nintendo Faces Internal Attack
Much like the incident with PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, this leak also involved a mascot fighting game: Super Smash Brothers for Wii-U. While the games themselves share similarities, the causes behind their leaks differ greatly. Whereas Sony accidentally released private data through a beta download, Nintendo's leak came from within, originating from an employee with access to a camera and an unreleased version of the game.
The leaker posted anonymously on 4chan’s video game board, sharing images of several unannounced characters and screenshots of gameplay modes that hadn’t been revealed yet. Initially, the leak was dismissed as a hoax due to the ridiculous claim that one of the characters was the dog from the iconic '80s game Duck Hunt. However, within hours, the leaker posted videos of themselves playing as all of the unannounced characters, as well as pictures of collectible items that didn’t make it into the final game. Rumors suggest that Nintendo eventually figured out who the leaker was and took appropriate action.
4. Harry Potter and the $20 Million Disaster
With the final Harry Potter book looming, tensions ran high at Bloomsbury’s offices. Having already dealt with nightmare leaks a few years earlier, when people took it upon themselves to spoil major plot points by loudly shouting out death spoilers for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince before the book's release, the company wasn’t about to let the last book suffer the same fate.
To prevent leaks and spoilers, Bloomsbury spared no expense, investing over $20 million into securing the book shipments sent to retailers, threatening stores that dared open the containers holding the precious books. But despite all this, someone managed to get a copy of the book days before its official release. Horrifyingly, the individual went on to photograph every single page and posted the images online for the world to see. The big finale was ruined, and Bloomsbury lost a significant amount of money trying to prevent it.
3. The Most Audacious Theft Of Information Ever
So far, all the incidents discussed have involved acts carried out in secret. Whether it's a hacker accessing files or a journalist sneaking time with a prototype, there’s no real sense of danger when no one is watching. But this next story is different. Have you ever heard of someone attempting to steal files in broad daylight, surrounded by people who all know they shouldn’t be where they are?
This exact scenario unfolded during the PAX East convention. While Atomic Games was setting up their booth for the eager crowd, one man decided it was a good idea to connect his laptop to the computers containing the source code for their upcoming game, Breach. Employees quickly confronted him, only for him to confess that he was in the process of stealing the code. Realizing the gravity of the situation, the man disconnected his laptop and dashed into the crowd, but was quickly apprehended by security and handed over to the police. Before his capture, he managed to steal 14 megabytes of data.
2. Apple Keeps Losing Top-Secret Technology In Bars
Apple is notoriously stringent about keeping its technology under wraps, even going as far as firing an employee for allowing Steve Wozniak, the very first Apple employee, to use a new iPad just hours before it was meant to be officially revealed. In 2010, an employee carrying a prototype iPhone 4 entered a bar, and when he left, the phone was mysteriously missing. What happened next was nothing short of dramatic.
The lost phone was bought by Jason Chen of Gizmodo for a staggering $5,000. Chen then posted detailed pictures of the device and shared his opinions about it online. In response, police raided his home and seized his computers as evidence. Ultimately, Chen was not charged with any crime, as he was protected by the shield law, which safeguards journalists from being forced to disclose their sources.
After such a fiasco, one might think Apple would exercise more caution with its priceless prototype phones. However, reports surfaced that another Apple employee had once again misplaced a secret phone in yet another bar. Allegedly, Apple traced the lost phone to an apartment building, but when police conducted a search, they came up empty-handed.
1. Trio Stages a Krusty Krab Heist at Coca-Cola HQ
In the animated show SpongeBob SquarePants, the evil Plankton is constantly scheming to steal the secret formula for the Krabby Patty in order to get rich and rival the Krusty Krab. The reason you’re reading this is because a group of real-life would-be spies essentially followed the same plot when they attempted to sabotage Coca-Cola from within by stealing its secret formula and attempting to sell it to its biggest competitor, Pepsi.
The whole ordeal began when a secretary working for a high-ranking Coca-Cola executive managed to access confidential files that were meant exclusively for the company’s top executives. Rather than do her job, she chose to pocket these highly classified documents with the intention of selling them to Pepsi. Although some may view Coca-Cola as a villainous entity, Pepsi wasn’t interested in accepting stolen goods from its arch-nemesis. Instead, Pepsi reported the secretary to Coca-Cola, who in turn involved the FBI. The secretary thought she was making a quick $30,000 from Pepsi, but instead, she ended up selling secrets to a federal agent, even handing over a vial of Coca-Cola’s top-secret flavor that was never meant to be exposed.
With the help of two accomplices, the secretary opened a bank account to receive a $1.5 million transfer for the remaining secrets she had been caught on camera sneaking into her bag. Instead of a lucrative payday, the secretary and her partners in crime were treated to shiny new bracelets courtesy of the FBI.
