How Hacker ruined the life of a Disney employee after downloaded the KI photo tool

The world of a former Disney employee was turned upside down when he downloaded a photo program for artificial intelligence without knowing that it was laced with hacking software during a massive data violation.

In July, Matthew van Andel, an engineer at Disney, received a message in the Chat Forum Discord from an unknown account that seemed to know personal, detailed details that would only be possible if the person had access to his workplace -Slack chat program.

The hackers said that if van Andel, who drew Disney to the apparent violation, would not meet their demands, they would publish lows of his personal data online.

When the engineer reset his various passwords, the hackers followed their threats, published information, including his social security number, his registration information on Disney Systems and even information about the Roblox accounts of his children.

“It is impossible to convey the feeling of injury,” said van Andel, 42, from La Crescenta, California The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.

After the hack, van Andel said that he had not eaten or slept and started panic attacks. Strangers gave him annoying voicemails, and jokers destroyed his social media accounts.

The engineer also lost his job at Disney after a forensic analysis of his working -free computer had found that he had accessed pornography that he contested.

The hack on Van Andel was part of a major violation of Disney's Slack accounts, in which a company that called zerobulge was passed on via a terabyte of private information, including employee data, computer code, details on unpublished projects and specifications on Disney technologies and advertising campaigns.

Nullbulge, who claimed to be a hacktivist collective, said reporters at the time when he carried out the attack, “because of the way how [Disney] Process artist contracts, his approach to the AI ​​and its rather obvious disregard of the consumer. ”

Security researchers believe that zerobulge could be a single American person who has used malware class called Infostaler, the malicious code in software downloads to carry out the cyber attack.

Van Andel's family members also say that they doubt the claim that the hack is motivated by an ideological complaint against Disney.

“At first you started stealing many credit card data and bank information – the normal things” Los Angeles Post last year. “But then they found out where he worked and they said: 'We can have additional fun with it.'”

They praised him for working with Disney and authorities to examine the incident.

“When the hacker made his presence known and tried to blackmail our brother for additional information, instead he went directly to the authorities and faced his family and reputation to protect his employer,” they write on a Gofundme page. “The hacker has returned his lack of willingness to satisfy and try publicly personal data to make an example for him so that the next victim would meet her sadistic requirements.”

Van Andel, who applied for a payment from Disney last year due to wages and emotional stress, said the hack still prompted people to try to access his private accounts.