Disney became the victim of a group of hacktivists known as NullBulge who targeted the company’s Slack platform and managed to get ahold of 1.1 terabytes of data. This was a massive leak and the details are as strange as they are astounding. Not only was the attack perpetrated by a group of self-described furries, but the main motivation seems to be Disney shuttering Club Penguin, a popular video game made for kids.
NullBullge leaked the information as a form of protest against various controversial practices such as the use of artificial intelligence and the impact of the technology on artists’ compensation.
NullBullge’s leak was quite extensive as they obtained data from 10,000 Slack channels used by Disney’s staff. The data set included messages and conversations about sensitive topics involving unreleased project details, raw images, computer code, login credentials, employee communications, web pages, and other similar confidential information used internally. The conversations date back to 2019.
Disney (DIS) acknowledged the breach in a statement by a spokesperson who said that they are currently “investigating the matter.” However, the company did not provide further details nor confirm the extent of the incident.
NullBullge highlighted that they managed to access Disney’s internal systems by exploiting a compromised computer from one of the company’s employees. “Anything we could get our hands on, we downloaded and packaged up,” the group said on an X post.
Disney’s Actions to Take Down Club Penguin Rewritten Enraged NullBullge
NullBulge describes itself as a “hacktivist group protecting artists’ rights and ensuring fair compensation for their work.”
They engage in activities that discourage companies from violating their principles concerning the promotion of cryptocurrencies, the use of AI-generated artwork that can ultimately replace artistic jobs, and outright theft of original works created by artists.
The group said that they are based in Russia but this information has not yet been confirmed. Meanwhile, NullBulge cited that they were motivated to breach Disney’s systems after they shut down Club Penguin, a hit game that was popular for many years.
A remake of Club Penguin was taken down in April 2022 by the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) at City of London Police after Disney complained that the fan-made video game was directly breaching intellectual property (IP).
“Following a complaint under copyright law, PIPCU have seized a gaming website as part of an ongoing investigation into the site,” the department told TechCrunch back in 2022.
Disney bought the popular game back in 2007 for a whopping $700 million but its popularity progressively faded. Disney eventually shut down the official version, but unofficial remakes started to show up as thousands of passionate users still loved it.
“Bet they never imagined taking down Club Penguin servers would cause this much shite,” NullBullge said about the hack, referring to their discontent with Disney’s actions.
Meanwhile, another factor that could have motivated NullBullge is associated with Disney’s negotiations with the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) during their recent strike.
The use of artificial intelligence in the entertainment industry was one of the hottest and most heavily debated topics that prompted actors and industry workers to participate in the strike.
Bob Iger, the Chief Executive Officer of Disney, was pretty vocal about his opposition to actors’ demands concerning the use of AI to exploit their talents without receiving any compensation. He also opposed certain aspects of AI regulation that would harm artists but benefit the company.
This is Not the First Time that a Large Corporation’s Slack is Hacked
The Disney incident is bringing up concerns about the security of messaging platforms like Slack and other cloud-based services that handle sensitive communications from large corporations. Cybersecurity experts have been warning for long that these tools create unnecessary vulnerabilities for companies.
Dr. Diane M. Janosek, a well-known voice in the cybersecurity industry, stressed that these tools can weaken the security of a company’s IT infrastructure as they can be accessed from both work and personal devices that may not be secure.
Meanwhile, Shawn Loveland, COO of Resecurity, added: “Slack has vulnerabilities customers need to monitor and mitigate accordingly.”
The Disney breach is not the first time where a large corporation’s Slack system has been breached. Companies including Uber, EAG Games, and X have reported similar hacks in the past that have resulted in financial losses and the leakage of sensitive information that may include corporate secrets.
Also read: 80+ Disney Plus Statistics You Need to Know July 2024
The breach could have severe implications. The details of many confidential projects may have been discussed in the conversations that NullBullge leaked, which could result in the loss of a competitive edge.
Meanwhile, the company’s reputation is harmed as the leak erodes consumers’ trust in the brand and its ability to protect their sensitive data. This could expand to partnerships, joint ventures, and collaborations with artists, other brands, and businesses who may now be reluctant to make deals with Disney amid the hack.
How to Avoid Becoming the Next Victim of Slack Hack?
The incident highlights the many challenges that cybersecurity experts currently deal with in an increasingly digital world. Third-party applications, integrations, APIs, cloud services, and unsecured personal devices are all becoming potential points of entry for bad actors.
The need to retain years’ worth of internal communications on platforms like Slack is also frequently criticized. It is also worth noting that many of the conversations leaked by NullBullge could contain personal data from Disney’s employees like their addresses, schedules, and even Social Security Numbers (SSNs).
As more companies rely on cloud-based services such as Slack, ensuring robust security measures is becoming a critical matter.
Some recommendations made by experts to avoid being affected by the actions of hackers include implementing robust access control measures like multi-factor authentication (MFA) on all of the company’s devices and permitting access only through company-vetted hardware.
Moreover, security audits may need to be performed on messaging platforms like Slack to make sure that they comply with the industry’s best practices when it comes to data safety.
Finally, adequate data retention and deletion policies need to be implemented to compartmentalize databases so the breach of one system does not provide hackers with access to large datasets.
The Disney breach reminds companies that cybersecurity threats are proliferating and hackers’ motives have evolved beyond earning money through ill-gotten means. So, it’s not just groups in hostile regimes like North Korea or Russia who are constantly targeting Western corporations, there are also hacktivists groups whose agenda is to expose corporate greed.