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 Hollywood Reporter says CEO Bob Iger has told employees that film would be released in segments online unless hackers were paid in bitcoin 
 
 Pirates of the Caribbean 5: hackers threaten to post film online unless Disney pays ransom 
 
 Hackers claim to have plundered Walt Disney’s forthcoming Pirates of the Caribbean film and are threatening to release it unless the studio pays a ransom, it was reported on Monday. 
 
 Bob Iger, the studio’s CEO, told a town hall meeting of ABC employees that hackers said they had accessed the film and would release it in segments online unless paid a ransom in bitcoin, according to the Hollywood Reporter. 
 
 He did not name the film, but said Disney had refused to pay and was working with federal investigators. 
 
 Deadline.com said the film was Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, the latest instalment of the franchise starring Johnny Depp. It is due to reach theatres on 25 May. 
 
 Disney did not immediately respond to a Guardian query seeking confirmation. 
 
 Iger said the extortionists threatened to release five minutes of the film and then 20-minute chunks unless a sizeable ransom was paid. 
 
 Hollywood has become a prime target for cybercriminals. Last month, an anonymous hacker, or group of hackers, followed through on a threat to upload the fifth season of Orange is the New Black online after Netflix refused to pay a ransom. 
 
 Hackers have also reportedly targeted Hollywood agencies such as UTA, ICM and WME. 
 
 In 2014, hackers paralysed Sony Pictures and demanded the studio cancel distribution of The Interview, a comedy about a plot to assassinate North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un. 
 
 Revelation of the extortion against Disney follows the global ransomware cyber-attack which has affected British hospitals and other organisations in at least 99 countries. 
 
 Disney is a potentially lucrative target. The Los Angeles-based behemoth is dominating box offices through its core filmmaking studio, nicknamed the Mouse House, as well as Marvel studios and Lucasfilm. 
 
 It has billed the fifth instalment of the Pirates franchise as a reboot, with Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow returning to the ocean alongside Geoffrey Rush as Hector Barbossa and Orlando Bloom as Will Turner. Javier Bardem joins the franchise as an undead captain. ||||| The exec says the thieves demanded a ransom, which the company is refusing to pay. 
 
 Have real-life pirates taken aim at Disney? 
 
 Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed Monday that hackers claiming to have access to a Disney movie threatened to release it unless the studio paid a ransom. Iger didn't disclose the name of the film, but said Disney is refusing to pay. The studio is working with federal investigators. 
 
 Iger's comments came during a town hall meeting with ABC employees in New York City, according to multiple sources. 
 
 Disney's upcoming theatrical release slate include Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, which opens Friday, and Cars 3, set to bow June 16. Rumors circulated online last week that a work print of Star Wars: The Last Jedi had been pirated and was being held for ransom, but days later online chatter tipped that rumor as a hoax. The studio had no comment. 
 
 The Disney chief said the hackers demanded that a huge sum be paid in Bitcoin. They said they would release five minutes of the film at first, and then in 20-minute chunks until their financial demands are met. 
 
 While movie piracy has long been a scourge, ransoms appear to be a new twist. 
 
 The ransom demand of Disney comes only weeks after a hacker uploaded 10 episodes of the upcoming season of Orange Is the New Black to The Pirate Bay after Netflix refused to pay an undisclosed amount. The episodes were posted on Pirate Bay six weeks ahead of the series' official June 9 launch. 
 
 Several Hollywood agencies have also been targeted by hackers with extortion plots in recent months, including UTA, ICM and WME.
– The new Pirates of the Caribbean movie has apparently fallen into the hands of a different kind of pirate, and they're threatening to make it public unless a ransom is paid. Disney CEO Bob Iger told employees Monday that hackers have seized a Disney movie and are demanding a massive Bitcoin payment, the Guardian reports. Iger, widely believed to have been talking about franchise reboot Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, said the unidentified hackers threatened to release five minutes of the movie online followed by 20-minute chunks until the ransom was paid or the entire movie was leaked. The movie is scheduled for a May 25 release. Disney has refused to pay the ransom and is working with the FBI, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The latest Orange Is the New Black season was recently released by hackers after Netflix failed to pay a ransom, and analysts say studios can probably expect many more such threats in the year to come. The likes of Disney and Netflix may have efficient security, but you "have all these vendors and small production companies which don’t have great security and probably don’t have the budget to focus on their own security so hackers get in pretty easily," Hector Monsegur, a former hacker who became an FBI informant and director of Security Assessments for Rhino Security Lab, tells Deadline.