It’s been a decade since Sony Pictures faced a devastating cyberattack in 2014. Orchestrated by North Korean agents, the attack crippled the company’s internal systems and also led to the public release of thousands of embarrassing emails.
Bringing back the haunting memories, Disney is now dealing with its own cybersecurity nightmare. The company on Monday announced it is investigating a reported hack of its internal Slack messages. Here’s all we know about the hack and what it might mean for the company.
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Hacker Group Nullbulge Claims Responsibility For Disney Hack, Issues Warning For The Giant
Disney has confirmed that it has fallen prey to a cyberattack by a group calling itself Nullbulge. “Disney is investigating this matter,” a company spokesperson said after confirming the attack. The hack allegedly includes data from thousands of Slack channels within the media giant.
As initially reported by the Wall Street Journal, the Nullbulge website is boasting the hack on its website under the header ‘Disney Internal Slack’. The website claims to have hacked “almost 10,000 channels, every message and file possible.”
It also actively taunts the channel for the hack, stating, “Unreleased projects, raw images and code, some logins, links to internal api/web pages, and more! Have fun sifting through it, there is a lot there.”
Though the initial media reports could not immediately verify the extent of the breach, it was confirmed that the material viewed dates back to 2019. The data that is currently in the public domain includes discussions about Disney’s corporate website, candidate evaluations, ESPN leadership programs, and even photos of employees’ dogs. Nullbulge has also posted some screenshots online.
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Nullbulge Credits Disney’s “Pretty Blatant Disregard For Consumers” For The Hack
The hacker group has also stated their motive for the hack. They claimed that Disney’s handling of artist contracts, its approach to AI, and its “pretty blatant disregard for the consumer” has led them into doing it. Nullbulge also issued a chilling warning on their website: “Consider the dropping of literally every bit of personal info you have, from logins to credit cards to SSN, as a warning for people in the future.”
According to the hacker group, they breached Disney’s information by compromising the computer of a software development manager.
The incident is eerily similar to the infamous 2014 Sony Pictures hack by North Korean agents. Other than the public release of thousands of embarrassing emails, the hack also led to a major fallout that led the then-co-chair Amy Pascal to resign from her position.
As Disney now scrambles to assess and contain the damage, it now remains to be seen what repercussions it causes to the company.
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