A group of hackers calling themselves Nullbulge, which is critical of AI-generated art, claims to have obtained a variety of data from Disney's Slack channels.

Data from Disney's internal Slack collaboration system was leaked online, including discussions about advertising campaigns, studio technology, and candidate interviews, according to files reviewed by the Wall Street Journal.

Nullbulge, an anonymous hacker group, released data from thousands of Slack channels belonging to the entertainment company, including computer codes and details of unpublished projects, in a blog post. Slack is widely used in large companies for communication about strategic initiatives.

The claims made by the group about the extent of the seized documents and their method of acquisition could not initially be independently verified. The material reviewed by the Wall Street Journal includes discussions about the maintenance of Disney's corporate website, software development, applicant evaluations, programs for emerging leaders at ESPN, and photos of employees' dogs. The data dates back to at least 2019.

Disney is investigating this incident," said a company spokesperson.

The business domain of the entertainment giant spans movies, streaming services like Disney+ and Hulu, theme parks, cable television, and the sports giant ESPN. Disney is home to popular franchises like Marvel and Star Wars.

In recent weeks, Nullbulge posted screenshots of documents online, which they claimed to have obtained from Disney's Slack channels. Nullbulge alleged that these included excerpts from project descriptions and plans, as well as visitor, booking, and revenue data from Disneyland Paris.

Nullbulge describes itself as a hacktivist group that advocates for the rights of artists and selects its targets based on a set of social, economic, or political values. A spokesperson for the group said in an online message that Disney was targeted because of its handling of artist contracts, its approach to AI, and its "quite obvious disregard for the consumer.

These comments highlight ideological divides in the entertainment industry as advances in artificial intelligence accelerate. Some artists and activists fear that creative works are being taken from the internet without compensation to power new chatbots and other tools that generate text, image, and video responses to user queries. Several technology companies claim that tapping into public internet data constitutes fair use of the works published there.

Nullbulge published the data because they believed that demands to Disney would be ineffective, said the spokesperson. "If we had said, 'Hello Disney, we have all your Slack data,' they would have locked everything down immediately and tried to eliminate us. In a duel, it's better to shoot first," said the spokesperson.

Nullbulge claimed to have accessed Disney's computer systems in May, said Eric Parker, a security researcher who tracks the group's online activities. He believes that the hacker group is actually a single individual. "He's not doing it for money," Parker said. "I think this is an exercise in gaining attention.

The hacker group has previously spread malicious software by hiding it in free add-ons for video games and AI-powered image generation software, a tactic known as a Trojan horse.

The group claimed that they obtained information about a Disney software development manager, whose computer they compromised twice – once through a video game add-on and a second time through an unspecified method. It was not immediately clear how extensive the group's access to Disney's Slack system was.

In the past, the group has stolen personal information and online login credentials and published them online, including the private information of the Disney employee. The employee did not respond to requests for comments.

Here is the translation of the heading to English:

"The public disclosure of a company's internal messages, codes, and documents can be extremely disruptive for businesses and undermine their commercial goals. In 2014, hackers linked to North Korea threw Sony Pictures into chaos, damaged internal systems, and publicly released email messages, including embarrassing exchanges involving Sony co-chairman Amy Pascal, who resigned months after the incident.