NullBulge Hacks Disney, Steals Over a Terabyte of Internal Data

NullBulge, a hacktivist group, announces a hacks in the IT systems of Disney, claiming to have extracted a huge 1.1 terabytes of data in use from the company’s internal Slack messaging channels. The leak is said to have affected almost 10,000 Slack channels that are leaked and consequently exposed sensitive details of internal projects, messages, files, code, social security numbers, login credentials, and personal photographs.

The group announced what they have done in an underground hacking forum and said that they had not intended to do so until they could obtain more details, but one of the insiders collaborating with them suddenly stopped cooperating, hence this is a big concern—pouring out data filled with sensitive information and great danger as it can be used as a foundation for more cyber attacks. Such a breach holds the future business plans of Disney and the related parties at stake. It entails a large number of internal communications and sensitive information, so NullBulge’s cybersecurity concern is genuine.

Though NullBulge is not a popular media, this fact is that it once entered headlines due to its activities in favor of the artist’s rights and fair remuneration. The group made headlines last month when it released infected Stable Diffusion extensions on GitHub as a way of protesting AI technologies that they claim are stealing from everyday creators. This latest attack on Disney seems to squarely be within a trend of pressuring against what they view as unfairness in the entertainment industry, more so on large corporations, which they say do not pay artists and authors well. Disney has often been accused of badly handling royalties, many a time in association with bought-out properties like Star Wars, Alien, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

In this sense, the breach by NullBulge might simply act as an extension of all of those grievances, targeting Disney for what the group deems unethical practices. Yet there seems a motivation based on the hackers to show up such issues, even though in a controversially unethical and illegal manner. Indeed, the potential implications for Disney from this breach run very deep, impacting both the internal and external sides of the organization. With the attackers in possession of confidential information, the task ahead for Disney can be labeled as huge in preventing and limiting further damage from the leak. It just goes on to show how big corporations have not yet been able to check the threats of cyberattacks on their systems, especially in the entertainment sector.