Walt Disney Co. has fallen victim to a large data theft attributable to hacktivists and justified with AI-related motives.
As first reported by WSJThe hacker group called NullBulge is alleged to have obtained and shared over a terabyte of knowledge from Disney’s internal Slack channels.
According to the hackers, who call themselves “hacktivists,” the leaked data includes sensitive information starting from traffic and revenue data for Disneyland Paris to unpublished projects and pictures.
NullBulge says its actions are motivated by a desire to “protect artists’ rights and ensure fair compensation for his or her work,” it says on its website. and stated: “We consider that AI-generated artworks harm the creative industry and mustn’t be encouraged.”
In an email to diversityThe hackers explained: “Disney was our goal due to the best way it handles artist contracts, its approach to artificial intelligence, and its pretty blatant disregard for the buyer.”
Last yr, Disney posted at the very least 11 AI jobs. An organization insider said, “Traditional media corporations like Disney either have to embrace AI or risk becoming obsolete.”
Even outside of Disney, tensions between content creators and major corporations are increasing.
In 2023, hundreds of authors, including Neil Gaiman and George RR Martin, signed an open letter to AI corporations regarding the unauthorized use of their work to coach AI models.
Getty Images has filed a lawsuit against Stability AI, accusing the corporate of illegal scraping and using the copyrighted images for AI training.
And that was only the start. Now the floodgates are open and there are dozens – even perhaps lots of – of unresolved lawsuits against AI corporations.
Some of probably the most well-known plaintiffs include the New York Times and last Record labels Universal Music Group, Sony Music and Warner Records.
What we all know concerning the data theft at Disney
The breach reportedly occurred through a compromised Slack account, with hackers claiming they gained access through “a person with Slack access who had cookies.”
Cybersecurity experts speculate that the breach could have been attributable to the usage of stolen or leaked API keys.
Rahul Sasi, CEO of CloudSEK, said CISO online“Developers often integrate Slack into their automation tools, sometimes inadvertently exposing these keys to code-sharing sites like GitHub or API platforms like Postman.”
Disney acknowledged the violation and stated that it was “investigating this matter.”
TThe full extent of the information leak and its potential impact on the corporate's business operations and future projects remain unclear.
Cyber attacks worry tech corporations
Only last week it got here to light that in 2023 OpenAI suffered an information breach that exposed internal discussions concerning the company’s latest AI technologies.
As with the Disney incident, a hacker was involved in accessing OpenAI's internal messaging systems.
OpenAI's handling of the breach got here under criticism after former technical program manager Leopold Aschenbrenner raised concerns concerning the company's security practices.
Aschenbrenner claimed he was fired for sharing information outside the corporate and argued that OpenAI was not doing enough to forestall foreign governments from stealing its secrets.
These events are a wake-up call for the industry – they show them that hacktivists have an agenda against technology corporations and that their defenses should not all the time watertight.
