Latest news with #M.V.
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Disney Slack Hack Suspect Pleads Guilty In Deal With Feds; Could Get 10 Years Behind Bars For 2024 Attack
The hacker who snagged a bevy of the Walt Disney Company's confidential information last year and tried to blackmail a House of Mouse staffer has made a deal with the Department of Justice. In an agreement released today by the U.S. Attorney's office for the Central District of California, Ryan Mitchell Kramer (a.k.a. NullBulge) has agreed to enter a guilty plea over his mid-2024 attack on Disney's systems. Hit with one count of accessing a computer and obtaining information and one count of threatening to damage a protected computer. Kramer is looking at up to a decade in a federal prison, a.k.a. a maximum of five years on each count. More from Deadline Nothing But Joy As 'Inside Out 2' Is No. 1 Movie In Deadline's 2024 Most Valuable Blockbuster Tournament With $650M In Profit 'Moana 2' Chee-Hoos To $415M In Profit And No. 2 In 2024's Most Valuable Blockbuster Tournament Sean "Diddy" Combs Admits Rejecting Feds' Sex Trafficking Plea Deal Just Before Trial; Jury Selection Begins Next Week 'We are pleased that this individual has been charged and has agreed to plead guilty to federal charges,' Disney said today after the DOJ made the deal with Santa Clarita-based Kramer public. 'We remain committed to working closely with law enforcement, as we did in this case, to ensure that cybercriminals are brought to justice.' In the plea agreement, prosecutors list the severe digital restrictions Kramer will have to live under in and out of prison. The Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lauren Restrepo and Maxwell Coll, both of the Cyber and Intellectual Property Crimes Section, led prosecution also makes clear to Kramer that despite their recommendations, the 25-year-old 'understands that no one –- not the prosecutor, defendant's attorney, or the Court –- can make a binding prediction or promise regarding the sentence defendant will receive, except that it will be at or below the statutory maximum.' Leading to the Bob Iger-run entertainment giant eventually shutting down its internal Slack system, Kramer did his damage last year by slipping into the company's data in via malicious files he created that posed as AI generated art and was downloaded by an unsuspecting Disney staffer. Gaining control of Disney staffer M.V.'s personal computer and the data on it, Kramer leapfrogged into the company's then well used and multi-channel Slack systems to grab 'approximately 1.1 terabytes of confidential data from thousands of Disney Slack channels,' according to the feds. With chilling flashbacks to the metastatic Sony hack of 2014, the plea agreement filed Thursday states: 'In July 2024, defendant contacted M.V. via email and the online messaging platform Discord, pretending to be a member of a fake Russia-based hacktivist group called 'NullBulge.' The emails and Discord message contained threats to leak M.V.'s personal information and Disney's Slack data. One message defendant sent to M.V. on July 8, 2024, threatened that in order to 'ensure this information remains undisclosed, I need your cooperation,' and warned that if M.V. contacted anyone about the message, 'we will drop our data publicly and loudly without so much as a warning.' Defendant also threatened that this would be a 'major, major mistake' for M.V.'s 'information and career at Disney.' Another email sent to M.V. on July 12, 2024, with the subject line 'You sure that's how you want to play?', stated, in part, 'Respond, do what we want, or end up on the net. Your choice. We will not contact you again.'' Going back to at least 2019, the material that Kramer got his digital hands on included not just everything official on current Disney employees, but people who had applied for jobs there as well as career paths and executive trajectories among much more. With at least two other individuals hacked by Kramer as well as M.V., prosecutors added in their filing today: 'On July 12, 2024, after M.V. did not respond to defendant's threats, defendant publicly released the stolen Disney Slack files, as well as M.V.'s bank, medical, and personal information on multiple online platforms. On July 14, 2024, following the leak of M.V.'s and Disney's data, M.V. received a final email from defendant, again using a NullBulge address that stated, in part, 'just wanted to check in to see if you believe us now. We are willing to take your data down, but not for free. Let us know.'' News of the hack was initially reported by the Wall Street Journal on July 15, 2024. Soon afterwards the FBI announced they were starting a probe into what happened. While this case is pretty much concluded, the Kash Patel-run FBI is still investigating what occurred with the two other people Kramer hacked Kramer is expected to make an appearance in U.S. District Court in DTLA in the next month or so. Best of Deadline Brad Pitt's Apple 'F1' Movie: Everything We Know So Far Everything We Know About 'Nine Perfect Strangers' Season 2 So Far 2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Tonys, Emmys, Oscars & More
The Print
01-05-2025
- Politics
- The Print
Lt Gen Pratik Sharma takes over as Northern Army Commander amid heightened tensions with Pakistan
The DCOAS (strategy) oversees critical directorates within the Indian Army, including operations and intelligence. Lt Gen Sharma, who was earlier the deputy chief of the Indian Army (strategy), takes over following the superannuation of Lt Gen M.V. Suchindra Kumar on 30 April. New Delhi: Lieutenant General Pratik Sharma Thursday took over as the general officer commanding-in-chief (GOC-in-C) of the critical Northern Command amid heightened tensions with Pakistan on one side and continued stand-off with China on the other. Commissioned into the 2nd Battalion of the Madras Regiment, the new Northern Army commander has served as the director general of military operations (DGMO), the crucial wing of the Indian Army that oversees the operational requirements and strategies. Lt Gen Sharma has also served as the commander of the Ambala-based 2 Corps, also known as the Kharga Corps, which is one of the two Strike Corps meant for the Western borders. He has also commanded a Division in the Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir. Incidentally, Lt Gen Sharma had been stationed in Kashmir since the Pahalgam attack and was part of all security briefings and planning. The Northern Command looks after both the borders with Pakistan and China, besides having a counter-infiltration and counter-terrorism role. In over three decades, Lt Gen Sharma has served in multiple operational environments, including Operation Pawan, the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF)'s operation in Jaffa, Sri Lanka in the late 1980s; Operation Meghdoot, the 1984 Indian Army operation to take back the Siachen Glacier, which continues; Operation Rakshak, a counter-terrorism operation in Jammu and Kashmir that began in the 1990s; and Operation Parakram, the 2001-02 standoff between India and Pakistan. He has also served in the military secretary branch and was the director general, (information warfare), a recently institutionalised information directorate at the Army headquarters in New Delhi. Other key appointments Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit, who was earlier the air officer commanding-in-chief of Central Air Command in Allahabad, has taken over as the new chief of integrated defence staff (CISC) following the superannuation of Lt Gen J.P. Mathew. A seasoned test pilot and qualified flying instructor with over 3,300 flying hours, Air Marshal Dixit brings in extensive operational and planning experience and has commanded a Mirage squadron. He will be replaced by Air Marshal Balakrishnan Manikantan, currently AOC-in-C of the Southern Air Command. Meanwhile, Air Marshal Narmdeshwar Tiwari has taken over as the new vice-chief of the Air Staff following the superannuation of Air Marshal S.P. Dharkar. Tiwari was earlier commanding the South Western Air Command in Gandhinagar, and he will be replaced by the current Training Command Chief, Air Marshal Nagesh Kapoor. (Edited by Sanya Mathur) Also Read: Ultra & Alpine Quest—technologies that keep Pakistani terrorists, especially LeT, going in J&K
