Very interesting!!!
I’m curious. Any kind of summary without having to go behind the pay wall?
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I tried every trick I know and I would love it if someone could at least copy and paste the text?
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“The trove of data from Disney that was leaked online by hackers earlier this summer includes a range of financial and strategy information that sheds light on the entertainment giant’s operations, according to files viewed by The Wall Street Journal. It also includes personally identifiable information of some staff and customers.
The leaked files include granular details about revenue generated by such products as Disney+ and ESPN+; park pricing offers the company has modeled; and what appear to be login credentials for some of Disney’s cloud infrastructure. (The Journal didn’t attempt to access any Disney systems.)
“We decline to comment on unverified information The Wall Street Journal has purportedly obtained as a result of a bad actor’s illegal activity,” a Disney spokesman said.
Disney told investors in an August regulatory filing that it is investigating the unauthorized release of “over a terabyte of data” from one of its communications systems. It said the incident hadn’t had a material impact on its operations or financial performance and doesn’t expect that it will.
Data that a hacking entity calling itself Nullbulge released online spans more than 44 million messages from Disney’s Slack workplace communications tool, upward of 18,800 spreadsheets and at least 13,000 PDFs, the Journal found.
The scope of the material taken appears to be limited to public and private channels within Disney’s Slack that one employee had access to. No private messages between executives appear to be included. Slack is only one online forum in which Disney employees communicate at work.
The exposed financial information was in documents shared by staffers that detail company operations. It isn’t official data of the sort Disney discloses to Wall Street and might not reflect final financial performance for a given period.
A spreadsheet exposed in the leak appears to detail revenue generated from Genie+, the premium park pass launched in 2021. The pass is a signature achievement of Disney’s theme park division chief, and the data underscores how vital Genie+ has become to the financial performance of that unit.
The file indicates that the passes generated more than $724 million in pretax revenue between October 2021 and June 2024 at Walt Disney World alone.
The leaked documents also provide fresh insight into Disney’s streaming revenue. The company doesn’t disclose revenue for individual streaming services within its direct-to-consumer business, which includes Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+. Some investors have hungered for more-granular data.
Internal spreadsheets suggest that Disney+ generated more than $2.4 billion in revenue in the March quarter. That amounts to about 43% of revenue the company reports for its direct-to-consumer entertainment business, which also includes Hulu. It underscores how significant a revenue contributor Hulu is, particularly as Disney seeks to buy out Comcast ’s stake in that streaming service and as the two sides spar over its value.
Some Slack channels in the cache contain detailed information about staff aboard the company’s cruises, including passport numbers, visa details, places of birth and physical addresses, as well as some current assignments.
Another spreadsheet contained names, addresses and phone numbers for some Disney Cruise Line passengers. One had names and contact information for a cluster of Disneyland guests with restaurant reservations.
Other channels offer glimpses of staff reactions to the company’s 2022 battle in Florida over Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’s Parental Rights in Education law, which restricts teaching children through grade three about gender identity and sexual orientation. LGBTQ employees and leaders of employee-resource groups wrote letters to then-Disney Chief Executive Bob Chapek and other members of staff expressing their frustration that the company hadn’t taken a stand. Later the company expressed concern about the law’s consequences.
The data offers insight into Disney’s ad operations, including spending by politicians on Disney platforms and debates over whether to approve ad campaigns by Netflix and other rivals.
In July, Nullbulge uploaded the Disney data to the internet, where it could be accessed by anyone. Nullbulge couldn’t say how many people had downloaded the data because it was uploaded to a decentralized file-sharing network.
Nullbulge claims to be a Russia-based hacktivist group that advocates for artist rights, but security researchers believe the hack is the work of a lone individual based in the U.S. In a direct message sent via X in July, Nullbulge said it accessed Disney’s data through a company manager of software development, whose computer they compromised.”
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WOW! … 3/4 of a Billion dollars of revenue with only a marginal expense, for something that was once free.
I have a subscription, so here’s a gift article link so it’s free to view:
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At 3/4 of a billion, I hope this creates a positive feedback loop for Disney. Charge tons for LLSP, make $, reinvest in capex into exciting new rides, repeat.
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This is huge! Slack itself is not secure. I work with HIPAA protected data and we are taught NEVER to put PHI or credit card information within Slack. I would hope anyone at Disney putting passport details within Slack would be fired.
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“The scope of the material taken appears to be limited to public and private channels within Disney’s Slack that one employee had access to. No private messages between executives appear to be included.”
Guess they have a suspect to whose account was hacked.
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it accessed Disney’s data through a company manager of software development, whose computer they compromised
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