Image taken from DailyDot

Disney’s recent data breach of its Slack channels is a stark reminder of how even the most powerful organizations can be exposed when security strategies fail. The breach didn’t occur because Slack is insecure, but because Disney’s approach to securing the SaaS tool wasn’t comprehensive enough. Yet Disney’s choice to discontinue the use of Slack seems to shift the blame onto the vendor. Let’s question the decision-making behind this failure and explore what Disney—and every organization using SaaS applications—should be asking themselves.

What Really Happened?

A hacking group, NullBulge, infiltrated Disney’s internal Slack system, gaining access to over 10,000 channels and leaking more than a terabyte of sensitive data — including 44 million messages and more than 18,800 spreadsheets and at least 13,000 PDFs — and leaked it online. 

Disney’s Slack Data Breach: A Breakdown

Disclaimer: While the exact details of the Disney Slack data breach may not be publicly available, based on the information released, we can piece together a likely sequence of events.

Initial Compromise:

• Malware Infection: A Disney employee likely downloaded a game mod or other file that contained malicious software.

• Credential Theft: The malware captured the employee’s login credentials, including their password for the company’s password vault.

Access to Password Vault:

• Vault Access: The attackers used the stolen credentials to gain access to the password vault, which likely contained passwords for various company systems, including Slack.

• Slack Password Retrieval: They extracted the password for the employee’s Slack account.

Slack Account Compromise:

• Login and Data Exfiltration: Using the stolen Slack credentials, the attackers logged into the employee’s account and began downloading data from the various channels they had access to.

• Data Theft: Over several months, they amassed a significant amount of data, including unreleased project information, source code, images, and internal communications. 

Data Release:

• Public Disclosure: The attackers eventually released the stolen data on a dark web forum, making it publicly available.

The Disney data breach exposed a wide range of sensitive information, including:

• Personal information: The personal details of Disney employees and guests, such as names, phone numbers, and email addresses, were leaked. Physical addresses, birthdates, passport numbers, and visa information of Disney Cruise Line crew members were also compromised.

• Financial and strategic secrets: Sensitive details about Disney+ and ESPN+ revenue, as well as park pricing offers, were leaked.

• Login credentials: Login credentials for some of Disney’s cloud infrastructure were exposed.

• Unreleased projects: The breach included unreleased projects, raw images, and source code.

• Internal Slack messages: The breach also revealed over 44 million messages from internal Slack channels.

• Hacker group claims: The breach was carried out by a group called NullBulge, who claim to be a “hacktivist group protecting artists’ rights.” They targeted Disney because of its handling of artist contracts, its approach to AI, and its disregard for consumers.

This wasn’t a failure of Slack – it was a failure of how Disney managed its security processes around Slack, a SaaS application.

Questioning Disney’s Approach: Was there a SaaS security strategy?

In the wake of this breach, several critical questions arise that Disney executives must be asking themselves:

• Did Disney have a dedicated SaaS security strategy? The shared responsibility model of SaaS security is widely understood in theory, but often poorly implemented in practice. SaaS providers like Slack secure their platforms through encryption, multi-factor authentication, and data protection measures. However, the responsibility of managing how these tools are accessed and used internally lies with the company.

• Did Disney have a documented SaaS security policy that addressed how tools like Slack were being used across their enterprise? Did Disney implement policies surrounding SaaS to SaaS and fourth party connections? If not, they left themselves open to an inevitable breach.

• Did Disney Conduct a Critical Process and Asset Analysis? With a platform as ubiquitous as Slack, used for everything from casual chats to sensitive project management, did Disney properly assess which processes were most critical? Did they map out the data flows and identify where vulnerabilities could arise? Many organizations underestimate the importance of identifying critical assets, but criminals know them and go after them!. 

• Did Disney fully understand what type of data was being stored and communicated via Slack, and did they implement controls around these processes? Without this, it’s impossible to prioritize and safeguard the most sensitive information.

• Where Was Scenario Planning? In cybersecurity, it’s not a matter of if an attack will happen, but when. Did Disney run a scenario analysis to determine what types of attacks could occur? Understanding how an attacker might penetrate an employee’s computer or leverage malware would have been essential to developing a response plan.

• Did Disney have monitoring protocols in place for their SaaS applications? Without proper monitoring and visibility attackers can easily gain access and exfiltrate data going undetected. Proactive user behavior monitoring is crucial to tracking insider threats, like the compromised employee account in Disney’s breach. Continuous surveillance can flag unusual activities early, preventing larger incidents

• Did Disney have plans for containing a breach once it happened? The fact that over a terabyte of data was extracted suggests that either monitoring was inadequate or that response times were too slow.

A Broader Industry Perspective: The SaaS Security Gap

Disney isn’t the only company struggling with these issues. The 2023 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report highlighted that 82% of data breaches involve a human element, such as phishing, malware, or credential theft. In SaaS environments, the Cloud Security Alliance found that nearly 66% of organizations face misconfigurations that expose them to risk.

Let’s break down some industry examples:

• Capital One’s AWS Breach (2019): Over 100 million records were exposed because of a misconfigured web application firewall in AWS. This breach wasn’t caused by AWS but by poor security configurations within Capital One’s cloud environment.

• Zoom’s Data Exposure (2020): While Zoom has robust security, the “Zoombombing” incidents that occurred were due to improper configuration by users who didn’t enforce meeting passwords and secure access protocols.

• MOVEit File Transfer Breach: In 2023, the MOVEit file transfer breach exposed sensitive data due to poor setup. The Snowflake breach also showed how bad access controls can lead to unauthorized access. In both cases, the issue wasn’t the tool itself, but how it was managed and secured.

The common thread? These were failures in how companies secured their SaaS tools, not failures of the tools themselves.

Tactical Recommendations: Moving from Reactive to Proactive SaaS Security

Given the lessons from Disney’s breach and industry-wide failures, what should Disney—and any organization using SaaS applications—be doing differently?

Adopt a Comprehensive SaaS Security Framework

SaaS security isn’t just about relying on the provider’s security features. Organizations need to deploy an internal security framework that includes:

• Access Controls: Implement strict role-based access control (RBAC) policies to ensure that only necessary personnel have access to specific channels or data within SaaS platforms. These access controls should also limit ability to set up SaaS to SaaS connections or download fourth party extensions. 

• Endpoint Security: This is where Disney was most vulnerable. Integrating endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools with SaaS platforms can help detect compromised devices before they can do damage. Creating monitoring and detection processes for SaaS use that include both in-application and endpoint activity builds end-to-end visibility for faster detection and response times.

• Continuous Risk Assessment is key, as SaaS environments evolve with new integrations and features. Regularly evaluating these connections ensures that vulnerabilities are quickly identified and mitigated before attackers exploit them.

• Data Encryption and DLP (Data Loss Prevention): Deploying DLP tools within Slack or similar platforms ensures that sensitive information isn’t accidentally or maliciously shared outside of the organization.

Conduct regular scenario testing

Breaches often occur because organizations don’t test for worst-case scenarios. Companies need to conduct simulated attacks on their systems (red teaming) to understand potential entry points and develop rapid response strategies.

Has Disney been conducting these exercises? If not, they’re likely vulnerable to more attacks.

Defense-in-Depth

Disney should have had multiple layers of security surrounding Slack. Did they rely too heavily on just endpoint protection or basic platform controls? A defense-in-depth strategy includes:

• Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Every SaaS tool should require MFA, especially for admin-level users.

• Continuous Monitoring: Tools like User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) could have flagged unusual access patterns, such as massive data downloads from Slack channels.

• Incident Response: Implementing automated incident response capabilities can further reduce the time it takes to address breaches. Quick actions, like revoking access or disabling compromised integrations, prevent further data exposure, as seen in Disney’s breach where over a terabyte of data was compromised.

Train Employees to Recognize Attacks

In this case, the initial breach occurred because of malware on an employee’s computer. Disney, like many companies, should be investing in cybersecurity awareness training to ensure employees can recognize phishing attacks, suspicious downloads, and other malware entry points.

Final Thoughts: SaaS Is Not the Problem—The Strategy Is

The Disney breach is not just a story about Slack; it’s a reminder that SaaS tools are only as secure as the strategy and processes built around them. Companies like Disney must implement a holistic SaaS security strategy—one that includes scenario planning, defense-in-depth, and continuous monitoring. Eliminating a SaaS tool after an incident due to misconfiguration is only a band-aid fix. Breaches will continue to happen as long as organizations treat SaaS security as an afterthought rather than a core part of their cybersecurity posture.

Disney’s choice to drop Slack instead of fixing their security issues might make them look like they’re avoiding the real problem. The Sony breach in 2014 is a good example of how leaked emails caused major damage to relationships and business strategies. Disney could face similar issues over time, depending on what was leaked. The true impact of this breach might not be clear until much later.

The critical takeaway?

This recent breach is not just a security lapse—it’s a critical business risk. As seen in the aftermath of the Sony breach, the true impact of exposed data can unfold over years, damaging trust and eroding value. The lesson here isn’t to blame the tool but to recognize the need for a stronger, more strategic approach to security. This means prioritizing your most critical assets, continuously monitoring real risks, and ensuring security is integrated into every business decision. It’s time to act decisively, before the consequences become unmanageable.

Resources:

• Report: Disney Cuts Ties With Slack After Data Heist – PYMNTS 
• Leaked Disney data from hacking scandal includes company secrets, internal Slack messages and revenue figures – New York Post
• Disney’s Slack Data Breach: Lessons for Enterprise SaaS Security – Spin.ai
• Disney to Stop Using Slack Following Hack That Exposed Company Data – WSJ

‌Note: This blog post is based on information available as of September 19th, 2024, from various news sources. The situation might evolve, and readers are advised to stay updated through official channels.