LA County man agrees to plead guilty to hacking Disney employee's computer
A Santa Clarita man agreed to plead guilty to hacking a Disney employee's computer and releasing confidential data from the company's Slack channels and the worker's personal information.
Ryan Mitchell Kramer, 25, is expected to enter his guilty plea during his initial federal court appearance in the coming weeks. Each count in the plea agreement carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
In his plea agreement, Kramer admitted to posting a computer program that could be used to create AI-generated art on several online platforms. One of them is GitHub, a tech website where developers share different projects.
Instead of the AI software, it was a file that, once users downloaded it, would allow Kramer to access computers.
The Disney employee downloaded the malicious program between April and May 2024, allowing Kramer to access stored login credentials and passwords for the victim's personal and work accounts, according to the DOJ. Kramer used the unfettered access to Disney's Slack workspace to download 1.1 terabytes of confidential data from thousands of the company's channel.
In his plea agreement, Kramer admitted to contacting the employee via email and on Discord. While pretending to be a member of a fake Russia-based hacktivist group called "Nullbulge," Kramer threatened to release the company's data and the employee's bank, medical and personal information online.
Kramer released all of the information on July 12, 2024, after the employee did not respond.
As part of the plea deal, Kramer said he used the same ransomware-associated cyberattack on two other people.
