The Walt Disney Company has decided to stop using Slack for internal communications after a serious data breach in July. This incident exposed over 1 terabyte of sensitive information, including financial details and plans for upcoming projects. Disney had already started moving to new collaboration tools before the breach and has informed employees that this change will be completed by the end of the next fiscal quarter.

In a memo, Disney’s Chief Financial Officer, Hugh Johnston, explained that this shift is part of their effort to improve security. In August, Disney assured investors that the breach would not significantly affect the company’s operations or finances. The breach was linked to a hacker group called ‘NullBulge,’ which claimed to have accessed data from nearly 10,000 Slack channels.

This incident follows another breach just a month earlier, when 2.5GB of data from Club Penguin and other corporate files were leaked online. These repeated breaches highlight how vulnerable communication platforms like Slack can be to cybercriminals.

Salesforce, the owner of Slack, insists that their security measures are strong. CEO Marc Benioff mentioned that while they do their part to secure the platform, companies like Disney also need to take steps to protect themselves from phishing attacks and other threats.

As Disney moves away from Slack, there are questions about how employees will communicate. It’s unclear whether they will switch to another platform, like Microsoft Teams, or create their own internal system. This decision comes at a time when many companies are reevaluating their communication tools to boost security and prevent future breaches.

Cybersecurity threats are a growing concern, as seen with other companies facing similar issues. For example, in 2022, the Lapsus$ hacking group breached Uber’s Slack server using stolen employee credentials. In August 2023, Activision also suffered a breach that compromised employee data and information about upcoming games.

As Disney makes this transition, their priority will be to strengthen security measures to protect sensitive information and reduce the risk of future incidents.