Disney reported Monday that it's investigating an alleged hack of its internal Slack messages, according to Deadline.
The hack, was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, includes data from the messaging platform that the media and entertainment giant uses.
The AI activist group Nullbulge has claimed responsibility for the hack. Its website claims that it has hacked “almost 10,000 channels, every message and file possible.”
Hacking Disney
The hacked files total 1.1 TiB of data, which contain “unreleased projects, raw images and code, some logins, links to internal api/web pages, and more.” The group also claimed that they held off dumping the file until they “got deeper in,” however their “inside man got cold feet and kicked us out.”
The WSJ said they couldn't immediately verify the extent of the files hacked and how they were downloaded. The publication said the materials they were able to view date back to 2019. Some of these data included conversations about Disney's corporate website maintenance, candidate assessments, programs for ESPN's emerging leaders as well as photos of employees' pets.
The activist group has posted screenshots of these documents online.
According to Nullbulge, they are a “hacktivist group protecting artists' rights and ensuring fair compensation for their work.” Their objective is to hack those who they claim have committed one of the three sins they listed.
One is crypto promotion. The group stated that they “do not condone any form of promoting crypto currencies or crypto related products/services.” Another is A.I. artwork. Nullbulge noted that they “believe AI-generated artwork harms the creative industry and should be discouraged.” And the last is “any form of theft.” The hacktivist group defines this as “any theft from Patreons, other supportive artist platforms, or artists in general.
Hacktivist Nullbulge vs A.I.
Nullbulge told WSJ that they chose Disney as a target “due to how it handles artist contracts, its approach to AI, and its … pretty blatant disregard for the consumer.” They also said that they were able to access all this information when they compromised the computer of one Disney software development manager.
As for releasing the data publicly, the hacktivist group said that they chose to do that because they knew making demands with an entertainment giant would be useless.
“If we said ‘Hello Disney, we have all your slack data' they would instantly lock down and try to take us out. In a duel, you better fire first,” Nullbulge claimed.
This news comes after Disney Music Group's announcement of teaming up with AudioShake, an AI stem separation company. The goal is for the company to help Disney separate a song's individual instrument tracks or stems for its back catalog. Afterwards, the AI will provide lyrics transcription.
According to Disney's press release, this is to “unlock new listening and fan engagement experiences” for their catalog of songs. Using this technology would allow the media company to remix and remaster the audio from its oldest movies.
This hack calls to mind a similar incident which happened 10 years ago to Sony Pictures. In 2014, agents who were linked to North Korea hacked Sony and damaged its internal systems, which left its email service and computers paralyzed. Thousands of email messages were publicly released which involved the studio's then co-chair Amy Pascal. She stepped down from her position a few months later.
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