Incident Overview

Ryan Mitchell Kramer, a 25-year-old resident of Santa Clarita, has admitted to orchestrating an online hacking operation that compromised sensitive information from unsuspecting users. His activities led to the unauthorized downloading and leaking of confidential data from the Walt Disney Company.

Legal Proceedings

Kramer has agreed to plead guilty to a single count of accessing a computer and obtaining information illegally, along with another count related to threatening to damage a protected computer. The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) reported that he is facing a maximum penalty of five years in prison for each charge.

Method of Operation

In 2024, Kramer uploaded a malicious program to various platforms, including the well-known coding repository GitHub. Marketed as software for creating AI-generated art, it was designed to infiltrate the computers of users who downloaded it.

Notably, one of Kramer’s victims was an employee of Disney’s Burbank office. Through this illicit access, he retrieved sensitive login credentials tied to both personal and professional accounts, including private communications from Slack channels utilized by Disney employees.

Data Theft and Extortion

In May 2024, Kramer exploited his unauthorized access to download around 1.1 terabytes of confidential data from Disney’s internal Slack channels. Following the breach, he contacted the victim via email and Discord, impersonating a member of a fictitious Russian hacking group named “NullBulge.” Kramer threatened to reveal the victim’s private information and the stolen Disney data unless his demands were met, though details of these demands remain undisclosed.

After the victim did not respond to his messages, Kramer proceeded to leak the stolen files, which included personal, financial, and medical information.

Arrest and Further Developments

Following an investigation led by the FBI, Kramer was apprehended. In his plea agreement, he acknowledged having accessed two additional victims using similar tactics.

Kramer is scheduled to make an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles in the near future.