The social media accounts of Disney’s theme park in Southern California got hacked on Thursday morning by a self-proclaimed ‘super hacker.’ Followers of Disney’s Facebook and Instagram accounts woke up to see defaced social media profiles with posts and stories filled with inappropriate messages. The social media accounts of the ‘most magical place on earth’ were not child-friendly, as the hijacker posted racist messages and virus threats. The posts immediately generated thousands of comments from Disney’s 8+ million social media followers.
After realizing the accounts had been hacked, the entertainment giant took immediate precautions and regained possession of profiles. They removed the offensive content, secured their accounts, and began investigating the incident.
The now-deleted posts seen by hundreds of thousands contained selfie-style images of a man who seemed to be in his 20s and claiming to be the person behind the attack. Even though a face was visible in the posts, investigators have not yet been able to confirm the identity of the person seen in the images nor if the selfies were actual images of the attacker. The hacker claimed his name was David Do and used its control of the account to racially abuse Disney staff working at Disney’s theme park in Anaheim, CA.
It is currently unknown who is behind the attack on the Southern California resort giant. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has not yet released a statement about the incident. There is no information on whether the hacker got access to the personal data of any of the millions of Disney followers. It is also unclear how long the hacker has been in control of the social media profiles before posting the slurs. The hacker did not ask for a ransom nor published any demands on the social media profiles. There is also no information on how the hacker managed to get access to the accounts of the theme park based in Orange County, California.
The hijacking of Disney’s account is yet another blow to Disney as the company has been going through tough times lately. Earlier this year, the entertainment giant’s top movie of 2022 had a disappointing opening as in three weeks, grossed the same amount of money as the rival’s Minions: The Rise of Gru grossed in just three days. Unfortunately, hackers won’t stop before everything, and even the most magical place on earth fell victim to them. Consider installing tier-one antivirus software on all your connected devices to stay secure.