Hacker threatens to release Netflix series

A hacker claims to have stolen the coming season of Netflix's hit series Orange Is The New Black and is demanding the streaming service pay an unspecified ransom to prevent the new episodes being prematurely released online.

The hacker, operating under the name The Dark Overlord, has already purportedly uploaded the first episode to an illegal file-sharing service.

The Associated Press could not legally confirm the authenticity of that uploaded file.

New episodes of Orange Is The New Black are scheduled for official release on June 9.

Netflix said a small production vendor that works with several major TV studios had suffered a breach.

The Californian company said the FBI and other authorities were investigating.

Pirated copies of Orange Is The New Black could dent Netflix's subscriber growth and the company's share price.

In the ransom note, The Dark Overlord claimed to have also stolen series from other studios by breaking into a single company.

The purported hacker promised to also release those titles unless "modest" ransoms were paid.

Rumours of a massive leak of Hollywood films and TV episodes have been circulating online for months, fed by purported screenshots of the footage and a copy of a proposed deal to delete the stolen material in return for tens of thousands of dollars.

When the AP contacted The Dark Overlord in February, the hacker said the stolen video would not be made publicly available after all, claiming "no one really (cares) about unreleased movies and TV show episodes".

It is not clear what triggered The Dark Overload's renewed ransom demands.