Over 1TB of data stolen from Disney, allegedly by anti-AI hacktivists

Hackers have stolen over 1TB of data from Disney

A hacker group called "NullBulge" claims to have stolen over 1TB of data from Disney's internal Slack channels. As first reported by The Wall Street Journal, the hackers allegedly leaked messages and files from nearly 10,000 channels, including info on proprietary code, unreleased media projects, and more sensitive data.

According to the WSJ, NullBulge is a hacktivist group protesting against AI-generated art. The group claims to have accessed Disney files with the help of an employee. The massive trove of files was first spotted in BreachForums on Thursday before swiftly being taken down — however, the leak still exists on mirror sites across the internet.

At the time of writing, it is unclear what exactly is in the leak's contents. According to the WSJ, who viewed some of the files, some of the leaks pertained to internal conversations about software development and website maintenance. Additionally, the WSJ saw discussions of potential hires along with unrelated topics, like images of employee dogs. The data goes as far back as 2019.

In a statement to several outlets, a spokesperson for the media conglomerate said that the company was "investigating the matter."

On top of the information taken from Disney's Slack channels, it seems that the hacker group also doxxed a Disney employee who allegedly cooperated with them and enabled the leak — including personal identifying details, medical records, and even employee access passwords. This was apparently in retaliation for cutting off communication with the group.

While this is not the first time Disney has been hacked this year, over 1TB of data is still a lot. However, the good news for Disney is that this hack doesn't seem to be on the level of the 2014 Sony Pictures hack which shut the company down for days, caused a movie to be pulled from theaters, and resulted in co-CEO Amy Pascal stepping down.

With all the money Disney has invested in Marvel, Hulu, and ESPN, it may merit a sigh of relief that the hack is, at the time of writing, basically just mundane coding discussions and pictures of cute dogs.