Game of Thrones episode 6 leaks online, and hackers aren't to blame

Watch out, Game of Thrones fans, because this week's upcoming episode has been leaked a few days early. Though Game of Thrones season 6, episode 7 – dubbed "Death is the Enemy" – is not set to air until Sunday night, it's hitting the internet today. While at first you might thing that the hackers behind HBO's recent security breach are responsible for this leak, you'd be wrong.

As it turns out, HBO only has itself to blame for this latest leak. According to The Independent, HBO Spain accidentally made the episode available to on-demand subscribers four days early, giving eagle-eyed viewers the chance to rip the episode and begin uploading it online. The episode was posted to a variety of different websites (such as YouTube and Reddit) before it began showing up on torrents sites.

While it'll be easy enough to avoid torrents of the episode, it's going to be a fair bit more difficult to avoid spoilers altogether. Until Sunday rolls around, it might be best to avoid any Game of Thrones-centric places on the web, such as the Game of Thrones subreddit. Be vigilant on social media websites too, as we imagine people will be all to eager to talk about the events of the episode.

Death is the Enemy promises to one of the biggest episodes of the season, if not the biggest. Anyone who watched last week's episode, Eastwatch, will know why, but we won't get into specifics here. All you need to know is that some of the more unsavory people on the internet will likely take joy in spoiling the episode for others, so be conscious of what you read online in the lead up to Sunday.

This actually isn't the first time that HBO itself was responsible for a leak. The same thing happened back during season 6, when HBO Nordic made The Door available to streaming audiences early. Hopefully this is the last time something like this happens, but for now, the best we can do is wish you Game of Thrones fans good luck in avoiding spoilers for the rest of the week.