Hackers breach Disney to protest its use of AI
In mid-July, animation giant Disney suffered a cyberattack. Behind the hack: NullBulge, a group of hacktivists claiming to protect artists' rights and ensure they are fairly compensated for their creations.
This collective is particularly convinced that: "AI-generated images harm the creative industry, and this practice should be discouraged."
The hackers allegedly possess 1.2 terabytes of internal conversations retrieved from the company, including messages, images, etc., from Slack. This messaging tool is used by many companies: employees use it to communicate with colleagues for project progress or informal discussions.
The hackers allegedly obtained this data by using the digital Slack cookies of a Disney employee. These are used by Slack to remember each user and avoid asking for their password every time they want to access the service. By obtaining these cookies, it is possible to log in to an account and retrieve conversations.
According to Variety, an English-language media outlet dedicated to the entertainment industry, NullBulge launched this cyberattack for various reasons:
Disney was our target due to its handling of artists' contracts, its approach to AI, and its fairly blatant disregard for the consumer.
Source: Variety
Variety also reports that the American economic daily The Wall Street Journal was able to review some of the hacked files. These include:
[...] conversations about maintaining Disney's website, software development, job candidate evaluations, leadership programs within ESPN, and photos of employees' dogs, with data dating back to at least 2019.
Source: Variety
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[Cover photo: Erik Mclean]
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