A man has now pleaded guilty after hacking a Disney Slack channel and compromising 1.1TB of data in 2024.
Hacker Pleads Guilty to Compromising Disney
As we previously reported in early 2024, Disney fell victim to a hacking incident that compromised 1.1TB of personal data. The data was leaked from an internal Slack platform that was infected with a malicious file and was said to include Disney Cruise Line crew member passport numbers, guest contact information, Genie+ revenue details, and more. Later in October 2024, Disney faced a class action lawsuit when thousands of people with data effected by the breach submitted a complaint.
According to a new report from Variety, California resident Ryan Mitchell Kramer, 25, has now pleaded guilty to the hacking incident. Kramer pleaded guilty to both felony charges, which includes one count of accessing a computer and obtaining information as well as one count of threatening to damage a protected computer.
In 2024, Kramer uploaded a computer program on several online platforms that claimed to create AI-generated art. In reality, the file was simply a malware program to gain access to the users’ computers. Sometime between April and May of 2024, an unnamed Disney employee downloaded the program and unknowingly gave Kramer access to their personal accounts. These accounts included a private Disney Slack channel on the victim’s computer. Kramer later downloaded 1.1 terabytes of data from “thousands of Disney Slack channels.”
At the time of the original report and following lawsuit, it was believed that the data breach was conducted by Russian hacktivist group “Nullbulge.” However, the Variety article explains that Kramer merely pretended to be a member of the hacktivist group and “threatened to leak their personal information and Disney Slack data.” Kramer later publicly released the victim’s bank, medical, and personal information online.
As part of the plea, Kramer admitted that he hacked the computers of at least two other victims using the same malware program. He will appear in a Los Angeles District Court in the coming weeks. Both of his charges carry a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison.
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