Disney Hacker Who Leaked Confidential Data To Plead Guilty: Authorities

BURBANK, CA — A Southern California man agreed to plead guilty to hacking the personal computer of a Disney employee last year and illegally downloading confidential data from the Burbank media giant via the worker’s Slack account, authorities said last week.

Ryan Mitchell Kramer, 25, of Santa Clarita, will plead guilty to accessing a computer and obtaining information as well as to threatening to damage a protected computer, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. He faces up to five years in federal prison for each charge, authorities said.

In early 2024, Kramer posted a computer program online that purported to be an artificial intelligence art generator but contained a malicious file that allowed Kramer to access the victim’s computer, according to the department. The victim downloaded the file in spring 2024 and Kramer in May 2024 downloaded about 1.1 terabytes of confidential data from thousands of Disney Slack channels, authorities said.

Kramer contacted the victim in July, posing as a member of a fictional Russia-based hacktivist group, and threatened to leak the information, according to the department. The victim did not respond, so Kramer released the Slack files and the victim’s bank, medical and personal information across multiple online platforms, authorities said.