Prime News Ghana

UK TV drama about North Korea hit by cyber-attack

By BBC News
KJK
KJK
Shares
facebook sharing button Share
twitter sharing button Tweet
email sharing button Email
sharethis sharing button Share

North Korean hackers targeted a British television company making a drama about the country, it has emerged.

The series - due to be written by an Oscar-nominated screenwriter - has been shelved.

In August 2014, Channel 4 announced what it said would be a new "bold and provocative" drama series.

Titled Opposite Number, the programme's plot involved a British nuclear scientist taken prisoner in North Korea.

The production firm involved - Mammoth Screen - subsequently had its computers attacked.

The project has not moved forward because of a failure to secure funding, the company says.

North Korean officials had responded in anger when details of the TV series were first revealed. Pyongyang described the plot as a "slanderous farce" as it called on the British government to pull the series in order to avoid damaging relations.

The North Koreans did more than protest though - they hacked into the computer networks of the company behind the show.

The incident was first reported by the New York Times, which cited Channel 4 as the main target. However, the BBC understands that it was actually Mammoth Screen that was hit by hackers.

Â