Disney+ Accounts Hacked and it’s Probably Your Fault

It seems Disney has crossed over to the dark side, or at least the dark web. According to a report published Monday thousands of Disney+ accounts have been hacked and are being sold online.

The tech news website ZDNet published a story said  it has found thousands of Disney+  accounts are either being offered for free or sold online across several hacking forums for as little as $3. User's complained that hackers were accessing their accounts, logging and locking them out of all devices, and then changing their account's email and password.

The streaming service that launched November 12th, and had 10 million customers in the fist hour, is assuring users that everything is a safe as a fairy tale.“Disney takes the privacy and security of our users’ data very seriously and there is no indication of a security breach on Disney+ ,” the company said in a statement emailed to The Post.

So how then did the happiness of Disney+ go so wrong? Experts have a good idea of how  thousands of valid passwords make their way onto the dark web so fast. According to Mike Chapple of the University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business it's most likely these accounts belonged to individuals who make a habit of reusing the same password across many different websites. Although ZDNet feels that other forms of compromising accounts were at play do the the speed at which hackers were able to gain access so quickly after the service launched. They noted that in some cases hackers gained access to accounts by using email and password combos leaked on  other sites, or even the Disney+ credentials might have been obtained from users infected with keylogging or info-stealing malware.

This time of year many will find themselves online shopping where passwords can lead to saved credit cards and payment options. Be sure to continually change your passwords and refrain from using simple and utlra easy to remember passwords like birthdays and addresses. Technology like modern password managers, such as LastPass, Dashlane and 1Password can help. They simplify password security by automatically generating unique passwords for every site that you visit and then plugging those passwords into websites for you.