Disney has become the latest victim of a hacking attack as it was revealed cyber-criminals may have stolen one of the entertainment giant’s new films and are threatening to post it online.
It came as London hospitals continued to be affected by last Friday’s separate cyber-attack, despite “heroic” efforts to restore IT systems and make medical data available to clinicians.
Bob Iger, chairman and chief executive of the Walt Disney Company, said the hackers threatened to release the movie unless a ransom demand was paid.
He declined to name the movie but the studio’s forthcoming releases include Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and Cars 3.
Problems continued in London hospitals with a number of patients at Barts Health, the country’s biggest NHS trust with five east London hospitals including the Royal London, had non-emergency procedures due to take place today cancelled as a precaution.
However, this resulted in surgical teams being unable to work to capacity, though they were able to perform the majority of procedures, the Standard was told. Problems only resulted in cases where old scans or X-rays were required for comparative purposes.
There were also minor problems at Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS trust, which runs Queen’s in Romford and King George, in Ilford. It was unable to perform non-urgent blood tests. Chelsea and Westminster and West Middlesex hospitals and their sexual health clinics were trying to restore a “normal” service but some appointments were postponed.
News of the Disney hacking was revealed by Mr Iger to ABC employees in New York yesterday. He said the firm was refusing to pay the ransom and was working with federal investigators.
He said the hackers demanded a huge sum be paid in Bitcoin. They had threatened to release five minutes of the film at first, and then in 20-minute chunks until their financial demands are met, he said.
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The demand comes weeks after a hacker uploaded 10 episodes of the new season of Orange Is the New Black, six weeks before its launch, after Netflix refused to pay a ransom.
Meanwhile, the hackers behind Friday’s cyber attack have yet to cash in on their ransom payments, according to Chainalysis, a private company helping to track them down.
The company said the attackers seemed to be “relatively unskilled” and unsure how to launder the Bitcoin funds safely.
