The Download That Led to a Massive Hack at Disney

引发迪士尼大规模黑客攻击的下载

The Journal.

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2025-03-18

22 分钟
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Matthew Van Andel’s ordinary life unraveled when he accidentally downloaded a trojan horse that gave a hacker access to his entire computer. But the hacker didn’t just get Van Andel’s information. It also got his employer: Disney.  Further Reading: -A Disney Worker Downloaded an AI Tool. It Led to a Hack That Ruined His Life.  -How to Keep Hackers From Destroying Your Digital Life  Further Listening: -Six Days of Chaos at MGM's Casinos  -Hack Me If You Can  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  • Where does this story start?

  • So I'm not quite sure.

  • So, you know, I didn't even realize it was that long ago at first until after the FBI had visited.

  • And I told them I would put together like a detailed timeline for them.

  • This is Dutch Van Andel.

  • Up until last year, he lived a pretty ordinary life.

  • He's a software engineering manager, married with two kids, and lives in the suburbs of Los Angeles.

  • But last year, something happened that turned his ordinary life upside down.

  • It started when Dutch downloaded a seemingly innocuous program onto his personal computer.

  • It was an AI software called Vision LLM,

  • and it could generate images he wanted, something his sons could play with.

  • Like generate pictures of Easter bunnies and Roblox people and, you know, stuff like that.

  • He didn't know it at the time, but the program had a malicious code in it,

  • a code that gave a hacker access to Dutch's computer.

  • And over a period of months,

  • that hacker stole all of Dutch's personal information, like his bank accounts and passwords.

  • They're getting into things they shouldn't have because they've got my Social Security number,

  • they've got my birth date, they've got my email address.

  • You can just make a phone call and pretend to be me because you have this information.

  • It was a nightmare.